No. 804
Part Two – Mother and Daughters
“And upon her forehead was a name written, mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” (Rev. 17:5)
This is a continuation from our July 2024 paper on “The Day of Vengeance.”
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The various Protestant sects (with all due respect to the comparatively few devout souls among them) are the true daughters of that degenerate system of nominal Christianity, the Papacy. Both Catholics and Protestants now freely own the relationship of mother and daughters, the former continually styling themselves as the Holy Mother Church, and the latter, with pleased complacency, endorsing the idea. Thus their “glory is in their shame.” (Phil. 3:19)
They are unmindful of the brand which they thus accept from the Word of God, which designates the Papacy as “the mother of harlots.” Nor does the Papacy ever seem to have questioned her right to the office of motherhood or to have considered its incompatibility with her assertion to be the only true Church, which the Scriptures designate to be a “virgin” espoused to Christ. Her acknowledged claims of motherhood are to the everlasting shame of both herself and her offspring. The true Church is still a chaste virgin, true to Christ, and dear to Him as the apple of His eye. (Zech. 2:8; Psa. 17:6, 8)
Since Papacy, the mother, is not a single individual, but a great religious system, in keeping with the symbol we should expect to see other religious systems answering to the illustration of daughters of similar character – not, of course, so old, nor necessarily so depraved, as Papacy – but nevertheless, “harlots” in the same sense; i.e., religious systems claiming to be either the espoused virgin or the bride of Christ, and yet courting the favor and receiving the support of the world, at the price of disloyalty to Christ. To this description the various Protestant organizations fully correspond. They are the great daughter systems.
The birth of these various daughter systems came in connection with reforms from the corruptions of the mother Church. When the daughter systems parted from the mother, they contained more than true reformers. They also contained many who still had the spirit of the mother, and they inherited many of her false doctrines and theories. It was not long until they fell into many of her bad practices and proved their characters true to the prophetic stigma – “harlots.”
While the various reformation movements did valuable work in the “cleansing of the sanctuary,” only the temple class, the sanctuary class, has ever been the true Church in God’s reckoning. The great human systems called churches have never been more than nominally the Church. They all belong to a false system which counterfeits, misrepresents and hides from the world the true Church, which is composed only of fully consecrated and faithful believers, who trust in the merit of the one great sacrifice for sins. These are to be found scattered here and there within and outside of these human systems, yet always separate from their worldly spirit. They are the “wheat” class of our Lord’s parable, clearly distinguished by Him from the “tares.”
Not comprehending the real character of these systems, as individuals they have humbly walked with God, taking His Word as their counselor and His spirit as their guide. Nor have they ever been at ease in nominal Zion, where they have often painfully observed that the spirit of the world, operating through the unrecognized “tare” element, endangered spiritual prosperity. They are the blessed mourners in Zion, to whom God appointed “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning.” (Matt. 5:4; Isa. 61:3) It is only in this “harvest” time that the separation of this class from the “tare” element is due; for it was the Lord’s purpose to “let both grow together until the harvest.” (Matt. 13:30)
As predicted by the Prophet, the various reform movements were corrupted by “flatteries.” (Dan. 11:32-35) After accomplishing a measure of cleansing, each one stopped short, and, so far as they found it practicable, they imitated the example of the Church of Rome in courting and receiving the favor of the world at the expense of their virtue – their fidelity to Christ, the true Head of the Church. Church and state again made common cause, in a measure uniting their worldly interests at the expense of the true spiritual interests of the Church. Progress and reform in the Church were again at a standstill. Indeed, a retrograde movement set in, so that today many of them are much farther from the proper standard, both of faith and practice, than in the days of their founders.
Some of the reformed churches were even admitted to share in authority and power with earthly rulers; as, for instance, the Church of England, and the Lutheran Church in Germany. And those who have not succeeded to that extent have (as in the United States, for instance) made many compromising overtures to the world for smaller favors. It is also true that while the world powers have advanced the worldly ambitions of the unfaithful church, the church has also freely admitted the world to her communion and fellowship; and so freely, that the baptized worldlings now form the large majority of her membership, filling nearly every important position, and thus dominating her.
This was the disposition which degraded the church in the beginning of the age, which brought about the great “falling away” (2 Thess. 2:3, 7-10), and which gradually, but rapidly, developed the Papal system. This loose character, early assumed by the various reform movements, and which gradually developed sectarian organizations, continues to the present day. The more these organizations grow in wealth, numbers and influence, the further they fall from Christian virtue and develop the arrogance of their mother.
A few earnest Christians in the various sects observe this to some extent, and with shame and sorrow confess and lament it. They see that every possible effort is made by the various sectarian organizations to please the world and to court its favor and secure its patronage. Elegant and costly church edifices, lofty spires, chiming bells, grand organs, fine furnishments, artistic choirs, polished orators, fairs, festivals, concerts, plays, lotteries and questionable amusements and pastimes are all arranged with a view to securing the world’s approval and support. The grand and wholesome doctrines of Christ are thrust to the background, while false doctrines and sensational topics take their place in the pulpit, the truth is ignored and forgotten, and the spirit of it lost. In these particulars how truly the daughters resemble the mother organization!
Nearly all the doctrinal errors so tenaciously held by Protestants were brought with them from Rome, although considerable progress was made by each of the reform movements beyond the gross errors of Papacy, such as the sacrifice of the mass, saint worship, worship of the virgin Mary, the granting of indulgences, etc. But unfortunately, Protestants of today are not only willing, but anxious, to make almost any compromise to secure the favor and assistance of the old “mother” from whose tyranny and villainy their fathers fled three centuries ago. Even those principles of truth which at first formed the ground of protest are being gradually forgotten or openly repudiated. The very foundation doctrine of “justification by faith” in the “continual sacrifice” is rapidly giving way to the old Papal dogma of justification by works and by the sacrilegious sacrifice of the mass (as among Anglicans and Episcopalians). In both pulpits and pews, numbers now openly declare that they have no faith in the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ as the ransom-price for sinners.
The claims of apostolic succession and clerical authority are almost as presumptuously set forth by some of the Protestant clergy as by the Papal priesthood. And the right of individual private judgment – the very fundamental principle which led to the Great Reformation – is now almost as strenuously opposed by Protestants as by Papists. Protestants are fully aware that it was in the exercise of the right of private judgment that the Reformation was begun and for a short time carried forward, although later a presumptuous domination of recognized leaders retarded the wheels of progress, and has, ever since, kept them strictly within the traditional lines and put a ban upon all who fearlessly step beyond them.
Thus viewed, Protestantism is no longer a “protest” against the mother church, as it was at first. As one writer remarked, “The ism is still with us, but what has become of the protest?” Protestants seem to have forgotten the very grounds of the original protest, and as systems they are fast drifting back toward the open arms of the so-called “Holy Mother Church,” where they are freely invited and assured of a cordial reception.
It is clear, therefore, that while many faithful souls, ignorant of the real state of the case, have reverently and devoutly worshiped God within these Babylon systems, nevertheless, this does not alter the fact that they are, one and all, “harlot” systems. Confusion reigns in them all; and the name Babylon aptly fits the entire family – mother, daughters and accomplices, the nations styled Christendom. (Rev. 18:7; Rev. 17:2-6, 18)
Let it be borne in mind then, that in the great politico-ecclesiastical systems which men call Christendom, but which God calls Babylon, we have not only the foundation but also the superstructure and the crowning pinnacle of the present social order. This is implied in the generally accepted term, Christendom, which of late is applied, not only to those nations which support Christian sects by legislation and taxation, but also to all nations which show tolerance to Christianity without in any definite manner favoring or supporting it, as, for instance, these United States.
The doctrine of “the divine right of kings,” taught or supported by almost every sect, is the foundation of the old civil system, and has long given authority, dignity and stability to the kingdoms of Europe. The doctrine of the divine appointment and authority of the clergy has hindered God’s children from progressing in divine things and bound them by the chains of superstition and ignorance to the veneration and adoration of fallible fellow-beings, and to their doctrines, traditions and interpretations of God’s Word.
It is this entire order of things that is to fall and pass away in the battle of this great day – the order of things which for centuries has held the people docile under the ruling powers, civil, social, and religious. All this has been by God’s permission (not by His appointment and approval, as they claim). But though an evil in itself, it has served a good, temporary purpose in preventing anarchy, which is immeasurably worse, because men were not prepared to do better for themselves, and because the time for Christ’s Millennial Kingdom had not yet come. Hence God permitted the various delusions to gain credence in order to hold men in check until “The Time of the End” – the end of “The Times of the Gentiles.”
BABYLON’S DOOM
Upon the prophetic page we may clearly read the doom of Babylon – Christendom – and it is no less clearly expressed in the signs of the times. That Babylon’s destruction will be sudden, violent and complete is forcibly stated: “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 God who judgeth her . . . 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.” (Rev. 18:8, 21; Jer. 51:63-64, 42, 24-26) And yet that it was to undergo a gradual consuming process was shown by Daniel: “But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” (Dan. (7:26)
The Papal dominion (and much of the abject reverence of the people for ecclesiasticism in general), was broken down at the beginning of the Time of the End – 1799 (see Studies in the Scriptures, Volume III, Chapter II, page 40). Although the subsequent process of consumption has been slow, and there have been occasional signs of apparent recovery, which never seemed more flattering than at present, the assurance of Papacy’s final destruction is positive, and its death-struggle will be violent. First, however, she must attain more of her old-time prestige, which will be shared with a confederated association of her daughters. Together they will be lifted up, that together they may be violently thrown down.
That the punishment of Babylon will be great is assured. Read the prophetic writings:
“And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.” (Rev. 16:19)
“For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.” (Rev. 19:2)
“For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 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. 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.” (Rev. 18:5-7)
While the broadest application of this language is, of course, to Papacy, it also involves all who are in any degree in confederation or sympathy with her. All such will be sharers in her plagues. (Rev. 18:4) Although the kings of the earth have hated the harlot and cast her off (Rev. 17:16), still she loudly boasts of her right to rule the nations, and claims that her former power will soon be regained.
As the day of trouble draws on, ecclesiasticism will endeavor to use its power and influence more and more to secure its own political welfare, by its control of the turbulent elements of society; but in the crisis of the near future the lawless element will spurn all conservative influence and break over all restraints, the red hand of Anarchy will do its dreadful work, and Babylon, Christendom, social, political and ecclesiastical, shall fall.
“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 God who judgeth her.” (Rev. 18:8)
“Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me [all in sympathy with Babylon], a destroying wind; And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about . . . destroy ye utterly all her host.” (Jer. 51:1-3)
“And I will render unto Babylon [to the Papacy specially] and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea [or Babylonia – Christendom – to all the nations of the so-called Christian world] all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the Lord.” (Jer. 51:24)
As we call to mind the long train of evils by which Babylon has oppressed and worn out the saints of the most High (the true Zion), and how it is written that God will avenge His own elect (Luke 18:7-8; Isa. 59:18; Jer. 51:6), we begin to realize that some fearful calamity awaits her. The horrible decrees of Papacy – the reproach and reward of which Protestantism also is incurring by her present compromising association with her – for the burning, butchering, banishing, imprisoning and torturing of the saints in every conceivable way, await the full measure of just retribution; for she is to receive “double for all her sins.” And the nations (of Christendom) which have participated in her crimes and guilt must drink with her to the dregs that bitter cup.
“And I will punish Bel in Babylon [the god of Babylon – the Pope], and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up [he will retract the blasphemous titles he has appropriated to himself]: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon [the civil power that has defended it] shall fall . . . Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire [destroyed].” (Jer. 51:44, 58) Babylon shall go down, never again to rise; “for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” Only then will the people realize their wonderful deliverance, and that her overthrow was by the hand of God. (Rev. 19:1-2)
Such is the doom of Babylon, Christendom, which Isaiah and other Prophets foresaw and foretold. It is in view of the fact that within Babylon’s borders are many of His own dear people that the Lord, through His Prophet, commands His sanctified ones to earnestly and widely proclaim the truth to the bewildered sheep still in Babylon: “Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.” (Isa. 13:2)
The warning voice goes forth to those with “an ear to hear.” We are in the time of the last or Laodicean stage of the great nominal gospel church of wheat and tares. (Rev. 3:14-22) She is upbraided for her lukewarmness, pride, spiritual poverty, blindness and nakedness, and counseled to forsake quickly her evil ways before it is too late. But the Lord knew that only a few would hearken to the warning and call; and so the promise of reward is given, not to the whole mass of those addressed, but to the few who still have an ear for the truth, and who overcome the general disposition and spirit of Babylon: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” But upon those who have no ear, no disposition to hear, the Lord will pour His indignation.
It is manifest to the most casual observer that, with a few individual exceptions, the attitude of all Christendom is that of pride, self-righteousness and self-complacency. She still says in her heart, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” She still glorifies herself, lives deliciously, claims to have need of nothing. and does not realize that she is miserable, poor, blind, and naked. (Rev. 3:17) Nor does she heed the counsel of the Lord: “I counsel thee to buy of me [at cost of self-sacrifice] gold tried in the fire [true, heavenly riches], that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment [the robe of Christ’s imputed righteousness], that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes [of understanding] with eyesalve [of truth], that thou mayest see.” (Rev. 3:18)
The spirit of the world has so fully taken possession of the ecclesiastical powers of Christendom, that their reformation is impossible. Individuals can escape their fate only by a prompt and timely withdrawal from them. The hour of judgment is come, and even now upon her walls the warning hand of divine providence is tracing the mysterious words, “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.” They have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. And the Prophet Isaiah now speaks, saying:
“Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.” (Isa. 47:1) This is said in derision of Babylon’s claim to purity.
“Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.” (Isa. 47:3)
“Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms . . . And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.” (Isa. 47:5, 7)
“Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.” (Isa. 47:8-9; compare Rev. 18:7-8)
“For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy [worldly] wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me. Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.” (Isa. 47:10-11)
Given these solemn declarations against Babylon, well will it be for all who heed the warning voice and the instruction of the Lord to His people yet within her borders: “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense . . . Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed . . . We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her . . . for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies . . . My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord.” (Jer. 51:6, 8, 9, 45; compare Rev. 17:3-6; Rev. 18:1-5)
For those who would obey this command to come out of Babylon, there is but one place of refuge; and that is, not in a new sect and bondage, but in “the secret place of the most High” – the place or condition of entire consecration, typified by the Most Holy of the Tabernacle and Temple. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.” (Psa. 91:1-2)
To come out of Babylon cannot mean a physical emigration from the midst of the nations of Christendom; for not only Christendom, but all the earth, is to be devoured with the fiery trouble of the Lord’s anger, though the fiercest of His wrath will be against the enlightened nations of Christendom, who knew, or at least had abundant opportunity to know, the Lord’s will. The idea of the command is to separate from all the binding yokes of Christendom – to have no part nor lot in her civil, social or religious organizations; and this, both from principle and from a wise and divinely directed policy.
On principle, as soon as the increased light of harvest truth illuminates our minds and makes manifest the deformities of error, we must be loyal to the former and discard the latter by withdrawing all our influence and support from it. This implies the withdrawal from the various religious organizations, whose doctrines misrepresent and make void the Word of God. It places us in the position of aliens toward all existing civil powers; not opposing aliens, however, but peaceable and law-abiding aliens, who render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.
Principle in some cases, and policy in others, would separate us from the various social arrangements among men. As we come closer and closer to the great crisis of this “evil day” it will doubtless be manifest to those who view the situation from the standpoint of “the sure word of prophecy,” that, even if there be cases where principle is not involved, it will be the part of wisdom to withdraw from the various social and financial bondages which must inevitably succumb to the ravages of world-wide revolution and anarchy. These caves and rocks of the mountains will not furnish the desired protection from the wrath of this “evil day,” when the great waves of popular discontent are lashing and foaming against the mountains (kingdoms – see Rev. 6:15-17; Psa. 46:3). The time will come when: “They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.” (Ezek. 7:19; compare also verses 12-18, 21, 25-27) Thus will the Lord make a man’s life more precious than fine gold, even the “golden wedge of Ophir.” (Isa. 13:12)
Those who have made the Most High their refuge need not fear the approach of such times. He shall cover them with His feathers, and under His wings shall they trust; yea, He will show them His salvation. (Psa. 91) As the wildest confusion approaches, they may comfort their hearts with the blessed assurance that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed [the present social order overthrown], and though the mountains [kingdoms] be carried into the midst of the sea [overthrown in anarchy]; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” God will be in the midst of His faithful saints, who make Him their refuge, and they shall not be moved. God will help Zion early in the Millennial morning. (Psa. 46)
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” (Luke 21:36)
(Excerpt from Studies in the Scriptures, Volume IV, Chapter II, pages 28-46, condensed and edited.)
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