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BABYLON  --  THEN  and  NOW ,  part  7  quotes

1)    The Second Angel's Message

     "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.

     Babylon fallen of Revelation 14 represented the fall of the Protestant churches from God in 1844, because they had rejected the light and truth from heaven of the First Angel's Message (Testimonies, vol 4, p 13; Early Writings, p 274; Great Controversy, p 381-383).

     The Roman Catholic church had already apostatized from God and become Babylon fallen many centuries before 1844, and God had chosen the Protestant churches to reveal His truths to the world. But they, as a corporate body, had also chosen to apostatize and depart from the side of Christ – her Husband, and to unite themselves in harlotry with the world and its leader Satan.  And, as we already learned, God mercifully sent the First Angel's Message to break up their harlotrous love affair with the world, and to bring them back to His side as a faithful bride once again.  But they refused, and thus became Babylon fallen (Spirit of Prophecy, vol 4, p 230-240).

     Now, the wine of Babylon represents her false doctrines which she holds out for all the world to drink.  The main false doctrines contained in this fermented and intoxicating wine are Sunday observance and the immortality of the soul (Evangelism, p 365; Testimonies, vol 6, p 317; Great Controversy, p 536; Selected Messages, book 2, p 118; Bible Commentary, vol 7, p 979).  So that’s the Second Angels Message.





2)     What does the SDA church teach that Babylon represents today?

     -- a modern "wicked city" (Signs of the Times, June, 1992, p 29).

     -- the "wickedness of my city" (Adventist Review, December 31, 1992, p 9).

     -- "evil influences" (Signs of the Times, June, 1992, p 29).

     -- "the archenemy of Christ and His church" (Adventist Review, July 13, 1989, p 11).

     -- "is still present as a mind-set or attitude" (Signs of the Times, May, 1992, p 13).

     -- "worshiping anyone but God alone" (Adventist Review, October 15, 1992, p 11).

     -- "spiritual compromise" (Signs of the Times, Special Issue, 1985, p 8).

     -- the "attempt to gain salvation through one's own works" (Adventist Review, December 31, 1992, p 9, see also Marked, p 150).

     -- "...the idea that I can save myself or that I can 'do it myself,' in terms of living the Christian life or of getting to heaven" (The Return of Elijah, p 61, by Morris L. Venden, PPPA, 1982).

     -- "...the futility of building one's life on either a try-harder or a do-as-you-please principle...[Babylon represents] both nations and individuals..." (Adventist Review, September 7, 1989, p 26).





3)     What does the SDA church of today teach causes the fall of Babylon?

     -- "fallen is racism, child abuse, death squads, loneliness, crack, torture, separation, death" (Adventist Review, December 31, 1992, p 9).

     -- the "Collapse of the Soviet Union" (Signs of the Times, May, 1992, p 12-13).





4)     What does the SDA church of today teach that the call to come out of Babylon is?

     -- to "flee evil" (Adventist Review, February 16, 1984, p 7).

     -- to "come out of falsehood" (Signs of the Times, March, 1990, p 28, see also Marked, p 83).

     -- to "set aside our natural self-sufficiency and pride and give our wills to God" (Marked, p 84).




5)     What does the SDA church of today teach the wine of Babylon represents?

     "The ideology of continued world progress--that man has the solutions to the besetting problems of our age; that given a little more time, he can, without divine intervention, produce a better world--is the intoxicating wine that Babylon has dispensed to the entire world." Adventist Review, September 7, 1989, p 26.