Chapter 21—Reaping the Whirlwind

William Miller and his associates had tried to help people who claimed to be religious see the true hope of the church and their need of a deeper Christian experience. They also worked to help those who were unconverted see their need to repent and be converted. “They made no attempt to convert anyone to a sect. They worked among all parties and sects.” Miller said: “I wanted to benefit everyone. I thought that all Christians would rejoice that Christ's coming was near, and that those who could not see as I did would not love any less those who did embrace this doctrine. I did not imagine there would ever be any need for separate meetings.... The great majority of those who were converted under my preaching joined the various existing churches.”^{1S. Bliss, Memoirs of William Miller, page 328.} 5TC 220.2

But as religious leaders decided against the advent doctrine, they denied their members the privilege of going to hear preaching about the Second Advent or even speaking of their hope in the church. The believers loved their churches. But as they saw their right to investigate the prophecies taken away, they felt that loyalty to God would not allow them to submit. So they felt justified in separating. In the summer of 1844, about fifty thousand left their churches. 5TC 221.1

In most of the churches, for years people had been gradually but steadily conforming more and more to worldly practices and declining in spiritual life. But in that year there were signs of a sharp drop in nearly all the churches throughout the country. Both the press and the pulpit commented widely on this fact. 5TC 221.2

Mr. Barnes, author of a commentary and pastor of one of the leading churches in Philadelphia, “stated that ... now there are no awakenings, no conversions, not much apparent growth in grace among church members, and none come to his study to talk about their salvation.... There is an increase of worldly-mindedness. It is this way with all the denominations.”^{2Congregational Journal, May 23, 1844.} 5TC 221.3

In February of the same year, Professor Finney of Oberlin College said: “In general, the Protestant churches of our country were either careless or hostile to nearly all the moral reforms of the age.... Spiritual apathy is almost everywhere, and is fearfully deep. The religious press of the whole land testifies to this.... So many church members are becoming worshipers of fashion, joining hands with the ungodly in parties of pleasure, in dancing, in festivities, etc.... The churches generally are becoming sadly corrupted. They have gone very far from the Lord, and He has withdrawn Himself from them.” 5TC 221.4

Rejection of Light

Spiritual darkness does not come from God's arbitrarily withdrawing His divine grace, but from men and women's rejection of light. By devotion to the world and forgetfulness of God, the Jewish people had been ignorant about Messiah's advent. In their unbelief they rejected the Redeemer. Even then God did not cut off the Jewish nation from the blessings of salvation. But those who rejected the truth had “put darkness for light, and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20). 5TC 221.5

After they rejected the gospel, the Jews continued their ancient rites while they admitted that the presence of God was no longer among them. The prophecy of Daniel pointed unmistakably to the time of Messiah's coming and plainly foretold His death. So they discouraged its study, and finally the rabbis pronounced a curse on anyone who would try to compute the time. In the centuries since then, the people of Israel have stood in blindness and rebellion, indifferent to God's gracious offers of salvation, neglecting the blessings of the gospel. They provide a solemn and fearful warning of how dangerous it is to reject light from heaven. 5TC 222.1

All who stifle conviction of duty because it interferes with their desires will finally lose the power to tell the difference between truth and error. They become separated from God. Where people spurn divine truth, the church will be in darkness, faith and love grow cold, and conflicts enter. Church members focus their interests on worldly ventures, and sinners become hardened in their rebellion. 5TC 222.2

The First Angel's Message

The first angel's message of Revelation 14 was designed to separate those who claimed to be people of God from corrupting influences. In this message, God sent the church a warning which, if the people had accepted it, would have corrected the evils that were shutting them away from Him. If they had received the message, humbling their hearts and preparing to stand in His presence, the Spirit of God would have been poured out. The church would again have reached that unity, faith, and love that it had in the apostles’ days, when the believers “were of one heart and one soul,” and when “the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 4:32; 2:47). 5TC 222.3

If God's people would receive the light from His Word, they would reach the unity that the apostle describes, “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is,” he says, “one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:3-5). 5TC 222.4

Those who accepted the advent message came from different denominations, and their denominational barriers fell to the ground. Conflicting creeds shattered into atoms. The message corrected false views of the Second Advent. People made wrongs right, and hearts united in sweet fellowship. Love reigned supreme. This doctrine would have done the same for all, if all had accepted it. 5TC 223.1

As watchmen, ministers should have been the first to recognize the indications of Jesus’ coming, but they had failed to learn the truth from the prophets or from the signs of the times. Love for God and faith in His Word had grown cold, and the advent doctrine only awakened their unbelief. As in Christ's time, people rejected the testimony of God's Word with the question, “Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed?” (John 7:48). Many discouraged the study of the prophecies, claiming that the prophetic books were sealed and could not be understood. Many put their trust in their pastors and refused to listen. Others were convinced of the truth, but they did not dare to announce it for fear that they would be “put out of the synagogue” (John 9:22). The message God sent to test the church revealed how many there were who had set their affections on this world rather than on Christ. 5TC 223.2

Refusing the warning of the first angel was the cause of that terrible condition of worldliness, backsliding, and spiritual death that existed in the churches in 1844. 5TC 223.3

The Second Angel's Message

In Revelation 14 a second angel follows the first, proclaiming, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (Revelation 14:8). The term Babylon comes from “Babel,” and it indicates confusion. In Scripture it designates various forms of false or apostate religion. Revelation 17 portrays Babylon as a woman—a figure that the Bible uses as the symbol of a church, a good woman representing a pure church, and an immoral woman, an apostate church. 5TC 223.4

The Bible describes the relation between Christ and His church as a marriage. The Lord declares: “I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness.” “I am married to you.” And Paul says: “I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” (Hosea 2:19; Jeremiah 3:14; 2 Corinthians 11:2.) 5TC 223.5

Spiritual Adultery

When the church is unfaithful to Christ by allowing worldly things to fill the life, the Bible compares this to violation of the marriage vow. It uses this figure to represent the sin of Israel in straying from the Lord. “‘As a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,’ says the LORD”; “an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband” (Jeremiah 3:20; Ezekiel 16:32). 5TC 224.1

The apostle James says: “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). 5TC 224.2

The woman (Babylon) is “arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and ... filthiness.... And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS.” The prophet says, “I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” Babylon is “that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:4-6, 18.) 5TC 224.3

The power that ruled over the monarchs of Christendom for centuries is Rome. The purple and scarlet color, gold, precious stones, and pearls, picture the magnificence that the haughty church of Rome paraded. No other power could be so truly declared “drunk with the blood of the saints” as the church that persecuted the followers of Christ so cruelly. 5TC 224.4

Babylon is also charged with an unlawful connection with the “kings of the earth.” By leaving the Lord behind and allying with the heathen, the Jewish church became a harlot, and Rome, seeking the support of worldly powers, receives the same condemnation. 5TC 224.5

Babylon is “the mother of harlots.” Her daughters must be churches that cling to her teachings and follow her example of sacrificing truth in order to form an alliance with the world. The message announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to religious organizations that were once pure and have become corrupt. Since this message comes after the warning of the judgment, it must be given in the last days. So it cannot refer to the Roman Catholic Church alone, because that church has been in a fallen condition for centuries. 5TC 224.6

Furthermore, the people of God are called to come out of Babylon. So according to this scripture, many of God's people must still be in Babylon. And in what religious organizations do we now find the majority of the followers of Christ? In churches professing the Protestant faith. When these churches began, they took a noble stand for truth, and God's blessing was with them. But they fell because of the same desire that ruined Israel—the desire to imitate the practices and court the friendship of the ungodly. 5TC 225.1

Union With the World

Many Protestant churches have followed Rome's example of connecting with “the kings of the earth.” The state churches have done this by their relation to secular governments, and other denominations have done it by seeking the approval of the world. The term “Babylon”—confusion—applies to these groups that claim to get their doctrine from the Bible, yet are divided into nearly countless sects with conflicting beliefs. 5TC 225.2

A Roman Catholic work argues that “if the Church of Rome were ever guilty of idolatry in relation to the saints, her daughter, the Church of England, stands guilty of the same, having ten churches dedicated to Mary for one dedicated to Christ.”^{3Richard Challoner, The Catholic Christian Instructed, preface, pages 21, 22.} 5TC 225.3

And Dr. Hopkins declares: “There is no reason to think that the anti-Christian spirit and practices are found only in what is now called the Church of Rome. The Protestant churches have much of antichrist in them, and they are far from being completely reformed from ... corruptions and wickedness.”^{4Samuel Hopkins, “A Treatise on the Millennium,” Works, volume 2, page 328.} 5TC 225.4

Concerning the separation of the Presbyterian Church from Rome, Dr. Guthrie writes: “Three hundred years ago, our church marched out from the gates of Rome with an open Bible on her banner and this motto, ‘Search the Scriptures,’ on her scroll.” Then he asks the significant question: “Did they come clean out of Babylon?”^{5Thomas Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel, page 237.} 5TC 225.5

First Departures From the Gospel

How did the church first move away from the simple gospel message? By making itself like paganism, so that the heathen could accept Christianity more easily. “Toward the end of the second century most of the churches took on a new form.... As the old disciples went to their graves, their children, along with new converts, ... came forward and remodeled the faith.” “A pagan flood flowed into the church, carrying its customs, practices, and idols with it.”^{6Robert Robinson, Ecclesiastical Researches (edition 1792), chapter 6, paragraph 17, page 51.} The Christian religion obtained the favor and support of secular rulers. Thousands accepted the form of Christianity. But many of them “remained basically pagans, especially worshiping their idols in secret.”^{7Gavazzi, Lectures (edition 1854), page 278.} 5TC 226.1

Has not the same process been repeated in nearly every church that calls itself Protestant? As the founders who had the true spirit of reform pass away, their descendants “remodel the faith.” Blindly refusing to accept any truth beyond what their ancestors saw, the Reformers’ children depart from their example of self-denial and of turning away from the world. 5TC 226.2

It is sad how far the popular churches have strayed from the Bible standard! Speaking of money, John Wesley said: “Do not waste any part of so precious a talent ... by needless or expensive clothing or by useless ornaments. Waste no part of it in beautifully decorating your houses, in unneeded or expensive furniture, in costly pictures, painting, gilding.... As long as you are ‘clothed in purple and fine linen,’ and dine ‘sumptuously every day’ [Luke 16:19], no doubt many will applaud your elegance of taste, your generosity and hospitality. But you would do better to be content with the honor that comes from God.”^{8Wesley, Works, Sermon 50, “The Use of Money.”} 5TC 226.3

Rulers, politicians, lawyers, doctors, merchants, join the church as a way to advance their worldly interests. The religious organizations, reenforced by the wealth of these baptized worldlings, make an even higher bid for popularity. They build splendid, extravagant churches. They pay a high salary for a talented minister to entertain the people. His sermons must be smooth and pleasing for fashionable ears. And so they conceal fashionable sins under a show of godliness. 5TC 226.4

A writer in the New York Independent speaks this way about Methodism as it is: “The line of separation between the godly and the irreligious fades out into a kind of shadow, and zealous men on both sides are working to erase all difference between their varieties of action and enjoyment.” 5TC 227.1

In this tide of pleasure-seeking, self-sacrifice for Christ's sake is almost entirely lost. “If funds are needed now, ... nobody must be asked to give. Oh, no! Have a fair, a show, a mock trial, an old-time supper, or something to eat—anything to amuse the people.” 5TC 227.2

Robert Atkins draws a picture of spiritual decline in England: “Apostasy, apostasy, apostasy, is engraved on the very front of every church; and if they only knew it, and if they felt it, there might be hope. But, no! They cry, ‘We are rich, and increased in goods, and stand in need of nothing.’”^{9Second Advent Library, tract number 39.} 5TC 227.3

Babylon's great sin is that she “made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” This cup represents false teachings that she has accepted as the result of her friendship with the world. In return, she exerts a corrupting influence on the world by teaching doctrines opposed to the plain statements of the Bible. 5TC 227.4

If the world were not so drunk with the wine of Babylon, large numbers of people would be convicted and converted by the plain truths of the Word of God. But religious faith appears so confused and contradictory that people do not know what to believe. The sin of the world's lack of repentance lies at the door of the church. 5TC 227.5

The second angel's message did not reach its complete fulfillment in 1844. The churches then experienced a moral fall by refusing the light of the advent message, but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to reject the special truths for this time, they have fallen lower and lower. Not yet, however, can it be said that “Babylon is fallen, ... because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Protestant churches are included in the second angel's solemn denunciation. But the work of apostasy has not yet reached its height. 5TC 227.6

Before the coming of the Lord, Satan will work “with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception”; and they that “did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved” will be left to receive “strong delusion, that they should believe the lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-11). Not until the church fully unites with the world will the fall of Babylon be complete. The change is progressive, and the ultimate fulfillment of Revelation 14:8 is still future. 5TC 227.7

In spite of the spiritual darkness in the churches that comprise Babylon, the great majority of Christ's true followers are still in those churches. Many have never seen the special truths for this time. Many are longing for clearer light. They look for the image of Christ in their churches, but they don’t find it. 5TC 228.1

Revelation 18 points to the time when God will call His people who are still in Babylon to separate from her fellowship. This message, the last that the world will ever hear, will accomplish its work. The light of truth will shine on all who have hearts that are open to receive it, and all the children of the Lord in Babylon will obey the call, “Come out of her, my people” (Revelation 18:4). 5TC 228.2