WORLD WIDE FALL of BABYLON

"And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Revelation 14:8

"And behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is Fallen is Fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground." Isaiah 21:9

"Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies." Jeremiah 51:8-9

The prophecy concerning Babylon in Jeremiah chapters 50 and 51 have their fulfillment in Revelation. The fall of Babylon is announced with the preaching of the second angel of Revelation 14:8. And the description of her judgment is seen in Revelation 17 and 18. There is some good news in Revelation 18:4. That is the loud cry call to come out of Babylon. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, come out of her my people, that ye receive not of her plaques." Revelation sends a call of warning before judgment and that has been the pattern through the ages.

1. In Noah’s message there is the call to come out of the wickedness, the darkness of sin, and come into the ark. Genesis 6 and 7.

2. In Lot’s day the call was given to come out of Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 18 and 19.

3. John the Baptist came out of the worldly society. He was different, not just to be different, but rather in order to follow the will and Word of God.

4. While children of God remain in the world, we are not of the world. Isolation from the world is not the meaning, but believes are different. In the world, but not of the world. John 17:14, 16

5. John the Baptist went to the wilderness and Jesus suffered outside the gate.

6. Revelation gives the call to come out of Babylon. Revelation 18:4

7. Friends, this whole world is a type of Egypt and just as Moses and Israel were called out of Egypt, the children of God (dead saints and living saints from all ages) will leave this world at the appearing of the Savior and the true Biblical Rapture. All is done for the glory of God and it will not be a secret event.

This is our fifth message in our series of seven sermons on Revelation 14:6-12. Now, for this month let us look at three major points:

1. The confusion in Babylon

2. The condition of Babylon

3. The call to come out of Babylon

"And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, 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 kind." (Revelation 18:1-2)

"The term ‘Babylon’ is derived from ‘Babel’, and signifies confusion. It is employed in Scripture to designate the various forms of false or apostate religion. IN Revelation 17, Babylon is represented as a woman representing a church, a vile woman, an apostate church." (Great Controversy, p. 381, E. G. White)

The description of Babylon as seen in Revelation 14 and 17 is a woman representing a religion, a church with World Wide Power, both, in the religious world and the political world. "And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon in fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." (Revelation 14:8) The power of Babylon has reached the religious world and the political world. She sits as a king/queen over all the nation. While her power has reached all nations, her sins have reached to high Heaven. "For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her inequities." (Revelation 18:5)

Confusion in Babylon is brought about by the bringing together the fallen apostate Protestant religions of the world. As these apostate religions join the papal church, as they unite with Rome, they become more and more confused. Confusion is everywhere in the religious world.

"For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all churches of the saints." (I Corinthians 14:33)

Can you imagine the confusion when all the religions of the world come together to help mother Babylon form the world wide Global church? When the different religions come together including the non-Christian religion, mass confusion is an absolute. Just think of all the different teachings that has already entered Babylon. Confusion of faith is going to be as far out, as far reaching as the present day talking in tongues. Friends, confusion and compromise are widespread and the worst is yet to come.

What would you think if a Pastor went to the pulpit and preached on a certain subject? Another Pastor preached on the same subject, but did not believe; nor preach the same theology as the first Pastor. Then a third Pastor preached and he did not believe, nor teach the same as either the first Pastor or the second Pastor. Later on still a fourth Pastor did not believe anything preached by the other three Pastors. What you would have in this scenario is confusion. The congregation is confused and friend, that is what is happening in the uniting of all the religions with Rome. Mass confusion and total compromise.

Man and His Church: A man was asked, "What do you believe about God and the Bible?" The man replied, "I believe the same thing my church believes." Well said, the inquirer, what does your church believe?" The dear church member said, "My church believes the same thing I do." Now, then the inquirer asked, "What do you and your church believe?’ And the church member was confused and dumbfounded. He finally said, "The church and I believe the same thing." The poor man had been surrounded by and had heard so many confused sermons, he didn’t know what to believe. That is the position of Babylon. That is the clergy in Babylon. For the sake of unity the truth is put aside and confusion and compromise are the results.

1. Corruption of her belief in the Holy Scriptures. Tradition is accepted instead of the plain teaching of God’s Word. The worship of idols and graven images. See the first and second Commandments in Exodus 20:3-5. The teaching of salvation through a church and system of good deeds and works. That is the order of the day in Babylon.

2. Creeds in Babylon have been substituted in place of Grace. Babylon teaches that Grace is merited by good works. See Titus 3:5

3. Church is essential for salvation. In Babylon’s fall and in all the confusion inside of her, the teaching that the church has authority to forgive sins and give salvation to sinners is one of her greatest errors. Let us remember who died on the cross. It was not the church, it was the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. See I Timothy 2:5

Now, let us move to the second point of the message and focus on...

The condition of Babylon at the printing of this sermon in December, 1999 has not reached the place where Babylon has completely fallen. The time is near when we believe she will come to that place. The union of the religions of the world uniting with Rome and worldly politicians will bring about the complete fall. This complete fall will come about because of the attempt to change the Commandments of God, especially the fourth commandment. Laws in high place will be put in place to remove God’s moral law as it is found in the ten commandments. The commandment that reminds

us of the Creator will be the target. It is the Sabbath commandment which reminds us who God is and has stood through out the ages as a sign and memorial of the true Creator/God.

"‘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.’ Revelation 14:8

"Nimrod and his wife, Semiramis, were not followers of the true God. They built the city of Babylon and made it a center of idolatry and moral corruption. In this way Satan got his false system of religion started, and has since ruled the world and persecuted the people of God.

"Alexander Hislop has this to say: ‘He (Nimrod) is said to have been the first that gathered mankind into communities, the first of all mortals that reigned, and the first that offered idolatrous sacrifices... All tradition from the earliest time bears testimony to the apostasy of Nimrod and to his success in leading men away from the patriarchal faith.’ (The Two Babylons, p. 51,52 and Studies in the Revelation, By Bunch, p. 215).

"The city was built in defiance of God and because of its religious system, founded on human effort to reach heaven by building of a tower, it was called Babylon which means ‘The Gate of God.’ The Lord however termed it Babel or ‘confusion’ (See Genesis 10:8-10). ‘Nimrod was a mighty rebel before the Lord’ (Targum of Jonathan). ‘Nimrod was mighty in sin, laying in wait to catch and overthrow men and drew them away from the worship of the true God’ (Jewish Targum - Studies in the Revelation, by Taylor G. Bunch, p. 215).

"Satan, the angel rebel, who was cast out of heaven with his millions of cohorts established the seat of his government - ‘Babylon the Great’, the ‘City of Confusion’ (Isaiah 24:10). From here have issued the false doctrines, the false systems of religion which have plagued the world for millenniums.

"God, too, has a seat of government - not a place of confusion and disunity, but Jerusalem the city of peace. In truth, God’s capital city of the universe, which He will transfer from Paradise to planet earth following the millennium, is called the New Jerusalem.

"Not only is Babylon drunk upon the wine of her own error and false doctrine, but she has made the nations drunk. ‘The nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad’ (Jeremiah 51:7). ‘Babylon has been fostering poisonous doctrines. The wine of error’ (Testimony to Ministers, p. 61). ‘The maddening wine of her licentiousness’ (20th Century New Testament). ‘The wine of the anger provoked by her fornication’ (Weymouth).

"Nothing could be more corrupt than its morals, nothing more fitted to excite and allure to immoderate pleasures. The rites of hospitality were polluted by the grossest and most shameful lusts. Money dissolved every tie, whether of kindred, respect or esteem. The Babylonians were very greatly given to wine... Women were present at their convivialities, first with some degree of propriety, but, growing worse and worse by degrees, they ended by throwing off at once their modesty and their clothing’ (Q. Curtius in Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopedia)." (Drama of Revelation Series, Vol 5 - Seven Headed Monster, Dallas Youngs, p.58-59)

"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 18:4-5).

"We should turn our thoughts from ancient Babylon to present-day Babylon. As we have already seen, Babylon means ‘confusion,’ and it means that today as it did when God confused the languages at the ‘Tower.’ Please note the confusion in and among the nations, but particularly in the religious world. And not only should the ‘confusion’ of modern Babylon engage our thought, but her ‘corruption’ as well.

"Symbolically, a pure woman stands for a pure church. ‘I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman’ (Jeremiah 6:2). On the other hand a corrupt woman stands for Babylon, the corrupt, apostate church. ‘And the woman was a arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH’ (Revelation 17:4,5).

"What city, what church is modern Babylon? Some commentators say that since the woman reigns over the kings of the earth, and since the seven heads of the beast upon which the woman sits are seven mountains, and that by taking the city and mountains to be literal, that Babylon is none else than the city of Rome which is built on seven hills.

"But Babylon is not the city of Rome. True the Roman Catholic Church is a component part of Babylon, but there is more to it. Note again Revelation 17:5. Note particularly the following quotation on the world, ‘mystery.’ ‘In early Christian usage the term ‘mystery’ did not mean something that could not be understood, as it does today, but something that could be understood only by those who are initiated, that is, those who had the right to know. Thus Christ told His disciples that it was ‘given’ unto them ‘to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,’ but not to the multitudes.... Paul speaks of the resurrection as a ‘mystery’ (I Corinthians 15:51), and often so refers to the plan of salvation itself’ (SDA Bible Commentary, p. 740).

"The ‘great whore’ of Revelation 17:1 is also a ‘mother,’ a mother of ‘harlots.’ ‘Babylon the great’ is the name by which Inspiration refers to the great threefold religious union of the papacy, apostate Protestantism, and spiritism.... The term ‘Babylon’ refers to the organizations themselves and to their leaders.... As already noted, ‘Babylon the Great’ included apostate Protestantism at the time here envisioned. The daughters of this ‘mother’ thus represent the various religious bodies that constitute apostate Protestantism’ (SDA Bible Commentary, p. 852).

"Babylon signifies the universal worldly church, including the Roman Catholic and the ‘daughter’ churches which came out of Rome at the time of the Reformation, commonly spoken of as the ‘Protestant Reformation.’

"Think of the ‘confusion’ which prevails in all these hundreds of communions. One declares for sprinkling, another for pouring and still another for immersion. One says that when a man dies he goes to heaven or to hell, another says that death is the end of him, another declares that he sleeps in the grave until the resurrection. One says that Sunday is the Sabbath, another keep Friday, while still others believe that Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is the Sabbath.

"Thus, the popular churches of today are in such a Babel that it is impossible to find one that can boast all the truth. And not only that, the trend is to depart further and further from God and the solemn truths of His Word.

"It is not impossible to learn God’s truth - far from it. Do this. Take your Bible and study the subject of Bible baptism. You will soon learn whether it is sprinkling, pouring, or immersion. Do the same thing about the condition of man in death, and soon you’ll know if he goes to heaven or hell or sleeps in the grave. The Bible will reveal with equal clarity whether Sunday, the first day of the week, is God’s holy day, or whether it is the seventh day of the week, Saturday, the Sabbath.

"Can you wonder that God calls upon His people to learn the truth, obey it, and to ‘Come out of Babylon?’" (Drama of Revelation Series, Vol 5 - Seven Headed Monster, Dallas Youngs, p.59-60)

South Georgia Quick Sand: I don’t remember if I heard someone tell the story or whether I read the remarkable story of the man who stepped in a quick sand pit of mud and water. In South Georgia and in part of Florida there are pits of quick sand and if you fall in, you cannot rescue yourself. A dear man fell into such a sinking sand/mud hole pit and immediately knew what had happened. He began calling and hollering for help. To his fortunate blessing and the providence of God, a man riding a mule heard the despairing cry for help. He stopped his mule, jumped off, cut the harness, and taking the leather straps, he ran as fast as possible to the quick sand/mud pit. Throwing the leather straps to the sinking brother, he rescued the man and saved his life.

Friends, as you have read the sermon, "World Wide Fall of Babylon," perhaps you have heard the small, still voice of the Holy Spirit teaching you that you need to be rescued from sin and from the confusion and corruption in Babylon. The call is to come out of her my people.

Our sermon for next month will be "World Wide Creation."