The Revelation Explained Part 21

Mr. O. Scott (Wesleyan Methodist) says: "The church is as deeply infected with a desire for worldly gain as the world. Most of the denominations of the present day might be called _churches of the world_, with more propriety than churches of Christ. The churches have so far gone from primitive Christianity that they need a fresh regeneration--a new kind of religion."

Said T. DeWitt Talmage: "I simply state a fact when I say that in many places the church is surrendering, and the world is conquering.... There is a mighty host in the Christian church, positively professing Christianity, who do not believe the Bible, out and out and in and in.... Oh! we have magnificient church machinery in this country; we have sixty thousand American ministers; we have costly music; we have great Sunday-schools; and yet I give you the appalling statistics that in the last twenty-five years, laying aside last year, the statistics of which I have not yet seen,--within the last twenty-five years the churches of G.o.d in this country have averaged _less than two conversions a year_ each! There has been an average of four or five deaths in the churches. How soon, at that rate, will this world be brought to G.o.d? We gain two; we lose four. Eternal G.o.d! what will this come to?"

Bishop Roberts said: "The popular religion of this country is not the religion of the New Testament. It has some of its features but not all.

It is lacking in grand fundamental elements. It answers many good purposes--restrains, refines, elevates, and gives to society a high grade of civilization; but fails to secure the great end which Christianity is designed to accomplish--the salvation of the soul. It dazzles but to blind, it promises but to deceive; it allures by worldly considerations to a heaven of purity, which no worldling can enter; it gives to its votaries, who long to eat of forbidden fruit, the a.s.surance of impunity from the threatened evils, and leads them on by siren strains from the Paradise of purity into the broad road which ends at last in the blackness of the darkness of an eternal night of despair!"

Says the Golden Rule: "The Protestants are outdoing the Popes in splendid, extravagant folly in church building. Thousands on thousands are expended in gay and costly ornaments to gratify pride and a wicked ambition, that might and should go to redeem the perishing millions!

Does the evil, the folly, and the madness of these proud, formal, fashionable worshiper, stop here? These splendid monuments of Popish pride, upon which millions are squandered in our cities, virtually exclude the poor for whom Christ died, and for whom he came especially to preach."

The report of the Michigan Yearly Conference, even as long ago as 1851, published in the True Wesleyan of Nov. 15, says: "The world, commercial, political, and ecclesiastical are alike, and are together going in the broad way that leads to death. Politics, commerce, and nominal religion, all connive at sin, reciprocally aid each other, and unite to crush the poor. Falsehood is unblushingly uttered in the forum and in the pulpit; and _sins that would shock the moral sensibilities of the heathen, go unrebuked in all the great denominations of our land_. These churches are like the Jewish church when the Savior exclaimed, 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.'"

Robert Atkins, in a sermon preached in London, says: "The truly righteous are diminished from the earth, and no man layeth it to heart.

The professors of religion of the present day, in every church, are lovers of the world, conformers to the world. Lovers of creature-comfort, and aspirers after respectability. They are called to _suffer_ with Christ, but they shrink even from reproach. Apostasy, _apostasy_, APOSTASY, is engraven on the very front of every church; and did they know it, and did they feel it, there might be hope; but alas!

they cry 'We are rich, and increased in goods, and stand in need of nothing.'"

I have by no means exhausted the supply of similar testimonies of Protestants now before me, but for lack of s.p.a.ce I must conclude. In the face of these amazing facts can any one deny that Protestantism is a part of great Babylon and is in a fallen condition?

"The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies." A certain writer on this text has said: "Who take the lead in all the extravagancies of the age? Church-members. Who load their tables with the richest and choicest viands? Church-members. Who are foremost in extravagance in dress, and all costly attire?

Church-members. Who are the very personification of pride and arrogance?

Church-members. Where shall we look for the very highest exhibition of the luxury, even show, and pride of life, resulting from the vanity and sin of the race? Answer, To a modern church-a.s.sembly on a pleasant Sunday." Though this writer interpreted the text literally, yet he spoke a vast amount of truth, as every one knows.

Consider, too, the wickedness carried on everywhere in sect Babylon unrebuked, with the preachers ofttimes in the lead. Shows, festivals, frolics, grab-bag parties, cake-walk lotteries, kissing-bees, etc., etc.

If the apostle were here to-day and we should inform him of a modern church entertainment where a bared female foot, projecting from beneath a curtain, was sold to the highest gentleman bidder, who had the privilege of kissing its owner and taking her to supper, he would probably answer, "Have I not told you, 'Babylon is fallen'?" If his attention was called to the fact that the members of a prominent church, in a novel entertainment, displayed the likeness of a donkey, minus the tail, while the members one by one were blindfolded, and, amid the uproarous laughter of the crowd a.s.sembled, were given the detached part to see who could place it the nearest where it belonged, he would say with double emphasis, "_Have I not told you_, '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'?"

The "abominations" are by no means confined to the _mother_ in the Revelation, but are also to be found in abundance in connection with her harlot daughters.

4. 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.

5. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and G.o.d hath remembered her iniquities.

6. Reward her even as she rewarded yon, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

7. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

8. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord G.o.d who judgeth her.

Here we have a number of important truths brought before us--first, that G.o.d had a people in Babylon who up to this time were free from her contaminations; second, that they received a positive call from heaven to "come out"; third, that all who refused to obey the heavenly command would become partakers of her sins and receive of her plagues; fourth, that those who came out were to pour the strongest judgments upon Babylon--"reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double." It is evident that the "torment and sorrow" which G.o.d's people give Babylon after their departure is not a temporal retaliation--for they never indulge in such, and the Word of G.o.d forbids it--but is altogether of a spiritual nature; hence the fierce judgment they inflict is executing the Word of truth, which brings to light all the wickedness and abominations contained therein. "Death, and mourning, and famine" only remain. This symbolizes that all spiritual life has departed, while famine and mourning are left. That such is the actual fact is shown by the following lamentation of the late Bishop R.S.

Foster concerning his own sect, the Methodist Episcopal:

"The ball, the theatre, nude and lewd art, social luxuries, with all their loose moralities, are making inroads into the sacred enclosure of the church; and as a satisfaction for all this worldliness, Christians are making a great deal of Lent and Easter and Good Friday, and church ornamentations. It is the old trick of Satan. The Jewish church struck on that rock; the Romish church was wrecked on the same; and the Protestant church is fast reaching the same doom.

"Our great dangers as we see them, are a.s.similation to the world, neglect of the poor, subst.i.tution of the form for the fact of G.o.dliness, abandonment of discipline, a hireling ministry, an impure gospel, which summed up is a fashionable church. That Methodists should be liable to such an outcome, and that there should be signs of it in a hundred years from the 'sail-loft,' seems almost the miracle of history; but who that looks about him to-day can fail to see the fact?

"Do not Methodists, in violation of G.o.d's Word and their own discipline, dress as extravagantly and as fashionably as any other cla.s.s? Do not the ladies, and even the wives and daughters of the ministry, put on 'gold and pearls and costly array'? Would not the plain dress insisted upon by John Wesley and Bishop Asbury, and worn by Hester Ann Rodgers, Lady Huntington, and many others equally distinguished, be now regarded in Methodist circles as fanaticism? Can any one going into the Methodist church in any of our chief cities distinguish the attire of the communicants from that of the theater and ball-goers? Is not worldliness seen in the music? Elaborately dressed and ornamented choirs, who in many cases make no profession of religion and are often sneering skeptics, go through a cold artistic or operatic performance, which is as much in harmony with spiritual worship as an opera or theater. Under such worldly performances spirituality is frozen to death.

"Formerly every Methodist attended cla.s.s and gave testimony of experimental religion. Now the cla.s.s-meeting is attended by very few, and in many churches abandoned. Seldom the stewards, trustees and elders of the church attend cla.s.s. Formerly nearly every Methodist prayed, testified or exhorted in prayer-meeting. Now but very few are heard.

Formerly shouts and praises were heard; now such demostrations of holy enthusiasm and joy are regarded as fanaticism.

"Worldly socials, and fairs, festivals, concerts and such like have taken the place of religious gatherings, revival meetings, cla.s.s and prayer meetings of earlier days. How true that the Methodist discipline is a dead letter! Its rules forbid the wearing of gold or pearls or costly array; yet no one ever thinks of disciplining its members for violating them. They forbid the reading of such books and the taking of such diversions as do not minister to G.o.dliness, yet the church itself goes to frolics and festivals and fairs, which destroy the spiritual life of the young, as well as the old. The extent to which this is now carried on is appalling. The _spiritual death it carries in its train_ will only be known when _the millions it has swept into h.e.l.l_ shall stand before the judgment.

"The early Methodist ministers went forth to sacrifice and to suffer for Christ. They sought not places of ease and affluence, but of privation and suffering. They gloried not in their big salaries, fine parsonages, and refined congregations, but in the souls that had been won for Jesus.

Oh, _how changed!_ A hireling ministry will be a feeble, a timid, a truckling, a timeserving ministry, without faith, endurance, and holy power. Methodism formerly dealt in the great central truth. Now the pulpits deal largely in the generalities and in popular lectures. The glorious doctrine of entire sanctification is rarely heard and seldom witnessed in the pulpits."

This lengthy quotation shows clearly the spiritual condition of Methodism, and certainly she is no worse than the rest. G.o.d is calling his people out of "all the places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." Ezek. 34:12. Those who refuse to walk in the light will go into darkness. G.o.d help people to "flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul."

9. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

10. Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

11. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

12. The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of bra.s.s, and iron, and marble,

13. And cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

14. And the fruits that thy soul l.u.s.ted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

15. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

16. And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

17. For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,

18. And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!

19. And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness!

for in one hour is she made desolate.

In this description we have a continuation of the judgments of Babylon already introduced. It must be borne in mind, however, that this is the spiritual judgments following her moral fall, and not her final and everlasting literal destruction. The latter is described under another symbol a little further on in this series of prophecy.

The symbol here is that of a great city, the grand metropolis of the world, the mart of earth's commerce; a superb city, their [_sic_] being no end to its luxuries and magnificence. In it everything that can minister to the appet.i.te, gratify the taste, and feed the pride of the human soul is to be found in profusion, being described at length. This great city is suddenly afire, and her merchants and the great men of the world who sustain her are overwhelmed with sorrow at the sight of all their wealth disappearing. Thus is great sect Babylon represented. She is a mighty city extending not only over the Apocalyptic earth, but, as symbolized by the ship-masters, sailors, and foreign traders, over the whole world. Suddenly she is set on fire by heaven's truth and her spiritual magnificence destroyed. The apostle Paul describes the great apostasy as a system that the "Lord shall _consume_ with the spirit of his mouth, and shall _destroy_ with the brightness of his coming." 2 Thes. 2:8. That spiritual consumption is now taking place in accordance with the symbols of this chapter, but the entire literal destruction of old Babylon will take place coincident "with the brightness of his coming," as described in the following chapter.

That sectarians are greatly alarmed over the sad condition of their fallen churches is clearly shown by the many quotations already given from Protestant writers. They may not be aware that it is a judgment from heaven upon man-made organizations; but such we know it to be in the light of eternal truth. Not only are they bewailing the loss of spiritual life and the desolating famine in sectdom, as was Bishop Foster and others, but they are beginning to tremble for their own safety and to wonder what the final outcome of it all will be. Wherever the gospel truth has been preached in all its purity, the sectarian denominations have been left dest.i.tute of spiritual life; for the children of G.o.d have heard his call, "Come out of her, my people," and have made their escape to Zion. Hence the ministers of Babylon cry out continually, "Stop! you are tearing our churches down," "You are taking our best members away from us," etc. But we can not withhold the truth; for the time has come when G.o.d is gathering his people together out of all the "places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day" (Ezek. 34:12) into the one church that Jesus built. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen."

20. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for G.o.d hath avenged you on her.

This verse is so clear that it requires no special explanation. G.o.d's people are delivered from sect Babylon; and while the judgments of eternal truth are being poured out upon her, all heaven and earth is called upon to rejoice and to give glory to G.o.d.

"We stand in the glory that Jesus has given, The moon as the day-spring doth shine; The light of the sun is now equal to seven, So bright is the glory divine.

"Now filled with the Spirit and clad in the armor Of light and omnipotent truth, We'll testify ever and Jesus we'll honor, And stand from sin Babel aloof.

"The prophet's keen vision transpiercing the ages, Beheld us to Zion return; We'll sing of our freedom, though Babylon rages, We'll shout as her city doth burn."

21. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

22. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;

23. And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.