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Babylon is Fallen, October 6
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
.
The second angel’s message of
Revelation 14
was first preached in
the summer of 1844, and it then had a more direct application to the
churches of the United States, where the warning of the judgment had
been most widely proclaimed and most generally rejected, and where
the declension in the churches had been most rapid. But the message
of the second angel did not reach its complete fulfillment in 1844. The
churches then experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal
of 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 made
all nations
drink of the wine of the wrath of
her fornication.” She has not yet made all nations do this.... The work
of apostasy has not yet reached its culmination.
The Bible declares that before the coming of the Lord, Satan will
work “with
all
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceiv-
ableness of unrighteousness;” and they that “received not the love of the
truth, that they might be saved,” will be left to receive “strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie.”
2 Thessalonians 2:9-11
. Not until this
condition shall be reached, and the union of the church with the world
shall be fully accomplished throughout Christendom, will the fall of
Babylon be complete. The change is a progressive one, and the perfect
fulfillment of
Revelation 14:8
is yet future.
Notwithstanding the spiritual darkness and alienation from God
that exist in the churches which constitute Babylon, the great body of
Christ’s true followers are still to be found in their communion. There
are many of these who have never seen the special truths for this time.
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