316
The Great Controversy 1888
Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots.” Says the prophet, “I saw
the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of
the martyrs of Jesus.” [
Revelation 17:4-6
.] Babylon is further declared
to be “that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”
[
Revelation 17:18
.] The power that for so many centuries maintained
despotic sway over the monarchs of Christendom, is Rome. The purple
and scarlet color, the gold and precious stones and pearls, vividly
picture the magnificence and more than kingly pomp affected by the
haughty see of Rome. And no other power could be so truly declared
“drunken with the blood of the saints” as that church which has so
cruelly persecuted the followers of Christ. Babylon is also charged
with the sin of unlawful connection with “the kings of the earth.” It
was by departure from the Lord, and alliance with the heathen, that
the Jewish church became a harlot; and Rome, corrupting herself in
like manner by seeking the support of worldly powers, receives a like
condemnation.
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
[383]
God, in order to form an unlawful alliance with the world. The mes-
sage of
Revelation 14
announcing the fall of Babylon, must apply to
religious bodies that were once pure and have become corrupt. Since
this message follows the warning of the Judgment, it must be given
in the last days, therefore it cannot refer to the Romish Church, for
that church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries. Fur-
thermore, in the eighteenth chapter of the Revelation, in a message
which is yet future, the people of God are called upon to come out
of Babylon. According to this scripture, many of God’s people must
still be in Babylon. And in what religious bodies are the greater part
of the followers of Christ now to be found? Without doubt, in the
various churches professing the Protestant faith. At the time of their
rise, these churches took a noble stand for God and the truth, and his
blessing was with them. Even the unbelieving world was constrained
to acknowledge the beneficent results that followed an acceptance of
the principles of the gospel. In the words of the prophet to Israel,
“Thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty; for it was
perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the
Lord God.” But they fell by the same desire which was the curse and