HOW CAN A PURE CHURCH BE CONVERTED INTO BABYLON? The church cannot measure herself by the world nor by the opinion of men nor by what she once was. Her faith and her position in the world as they now are must be compared with what they would have been if her course had been continually onward and upward. The church will be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary. If her moral character and spiritual state do not correspond with the benefits and blessings God has conferred upon her, she will be found wanting. 5T83.2 The term “Babylon” is derived from “Babel,” and signifies confusion. In Scripture it designates various forms of false or apostate religion. In Revelation 17 Babylon is represented as a woman—a figure used in the Bible as the symbol of the church, a virtuous woman representing a pure church; a vile woman, an apostate church. HF236.3 1.)WORLD-LOVING CHURCHES The existing confusion of conflicting creeds and sects is fitly represented by the term “Babylon,” which prophecy (Revelation 14:8; 18:2) applies to the world-loving churches of the last days. 2.)CONNECTION WITH OTHER CHURCHES Many of the Protestant churches are following Rome’s example of iniquitous connection with “the kings of the earth”—the state churches, by their relation to secular governments; and other denominations, by seeking the favor of the world. And the term “Babylon”—confusion—may be appropriately applied to these bodies, . . . .GC383.1 3.)TRINITY The great sin charged against Babylon is that she “made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” This cup of intoxication which she presents to the world represents the false doctrines that she has accepted as the result of her unlawful connection with the great ones of the earth. Friendship with the world corrupts her faith, and in her turn she exerts a corrupting influence upon the world by teaching doctrines which are opposed to the plainest statements of Holy Writ. GC388.2 Babylon is said to be “the mother of harlots.” By her daughters must be symbolized churches that cling to her doctrines and traditions, and follow her example of sacrificing the truth and the approval of God, in order to form an unlawful alliance with the world. GC382.3 James White,Review and Herald Feb.7,1856-The greatest fault we can find in the (sixteenth century) reformation is,the reformers stop reforming.Had they gone on,and onward,till they had left the last vestige of Papacy behind,such as natural immortality,sprinkling,the TRINITY,and sunday keeping,the church would now be free from her UNSCRIPTURAL ERRORS. 4.)SUNDAY SACREDNESS&IMMORTALITY OF SOUL Babylon has been fostering poisonous doctrines, the wine of error. This wine of error is made up of false doctrines, such as the natural immortality of the soul, the eternal torment of the wicked, the denial of the pre-existence of Christ prior to His birth in Bethlehem, and advocating and exalting the first day of the week above God’s holy and sanctified day.TM61.3 5.)REJECTION OF 1ST ANGEL: When the churches spurned the counsel of God by rejecting the Advent message, the Lord rejected them. The first angel was followed by a second, proclaiming, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”4SP232.1 6.APOSTASY Concerning Babylon, the symbol of the apostate church,. . . . COL178.4 We cannot now step off the foundation that God has established. We cannot now enter into any new organization; for this would mean apostasy from the truth.—Manuscript 129, 1905. 7.)STRUCTURE OF ITS ORGANIZATION When we first met in Conference, it was thought that the General Conference should extend over the whole world. But this is not in God’s order. Conferences must be organized in different localities, and it will be for the health of the different Conferences to have it thus. This does not mean that we are to cut ourselves apart from one another, and be as separate atoms. Every Conference is to touch every other Conference, and be in harmony with every other Conference. God wants us to talk for this, and he wants us to act for this. We are the people of God, who are to be separate from the world. We are to stand as representatives of sacred truth. GCB April 5,1901. “The division of the General Conference into District Union Conferences was God’s arrangement. In the work of the Lord in these last days there should be no jerusalem centers, no kingly power. And the work in the different countries is not to be tied up by contracts to the work centering in Battle Creek, for this is not God’s plan. GCB April10,1903. I told her [Mrs. Lida Scott] how mother regarded the experience of the remnant church, and of her positive teaching that God would not permit this denomination to so fully apostatize that there would be the coming out of another church.—W. C. White to E. E. Andross, May 23, 1915, White Estate Correspondence File. LDE56.4 GCB April 10,1903-He is calling us in another direction from the way this new constitution is proposed and what i ask for is that we shall keep our eyes and our steps and our faces in that direction and not turn back to Egypt and Babylon which this testimony points out.Think of it,on the road toward a kingly powerconfused in itselfkingly power in the church. April 21,1903-The heavenly Teacher inquired: “What stronger delusion can beguile the mind than the pretense that you are building on the right foundation, when in reality you are working out many things according to worldly policy and are sinning against Jehovah? Oh, it is a great deception, a fascinating delusionor this, and he wants us to act for this. We are the people of God, who are to be separate from the world. We are tit and power thereof; when they suppose that they are rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing, while in reality they are in need of everything.” Who can truthfully say: “Our gold is tried in the fire; our garments are unspotted by the world”? I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness. Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath. Then He said to me: “Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character?How is the faithful city become an harlot!or this, and he wants us to act for this. We are th a place whence the divine presence and glory have departed! 8T250
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 07:37:39 +0000