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From Here to Forever
upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, 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.” Babylon is “that great city, which reigneth over the kings of
the earth.”
Revelation 17:4-6, 18
.
The power that for centuries maintained sway over the monarchs
of Christendom is Rome. The purple, scarlet color, gold, precious
stones, and pearls, picture the magnificence affected by the haughty
see of Rome. No other power could be so truly declared “drunken
with the blood of the saints” as that church which so cruelly perse-
cuted the followers of Christ.
Babylon is also charged with unlawful connection with the
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“kings of the earth.” By departure from the Lord and alliance with
the heathen the Jewish church became a harlot, and Rome, seeking
the support of worldly powers, receives a like condemnation.
Babylon is “the mother of harlots.” Her daughters must be
churches that cling to her doctrines and follow her example of sacri-
ficing truth in order to form an alliance with the world. The message
announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to religious bodies that
were once pure and have become corrupt. Since this message fol-
lows the warning of the judgment, it must be given in the last days.
Therefore it cannot refer to the Roman Church alone, for that church
has been in a fallen condition for centuries.
Furthermore, the people of God are called to come out of Baby-
lon. 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? In churches professing the
Protestant faith. At the time of their rise these churches took a noble
stand for truth, and God’s blessing was with them. But they fell by
the same desire which was the ruin of Israel—imitating the practices
and courting the friendship of the ungodly.
Union With the World
Many Protestant churches have followed Rome’s example of
connection with “the kings of the earth”—the state churches, by
their relation to secular governments; and other denominations, by
seeking favor of the world. The term “Babylon”—confusion—may