FIRST QUARTER 2019

SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #12

MARCH 23, 2019

“JUDGMENT ON BABYLON”

 

 

Just like in Revelation 14:7, the ‘judgment of Babylon’ in Revelation 17:1 is both how Babylon is judged AND how Babylon judges. What is her measuring stick? What is her jurisprudence? Daniel seven and eight are the nexus for understanding Revelation 12-18.

 

Daniel 7:25 shows what end-time Babylon means and her method of judgment is.

“And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”

 

She wears out the saints of the Most High through her thinking to change times and laws. This is on many levels—physically (hereditary law introducing the immaculate conception). My friend, Jerry Finneman, stated it this way to me.

“Besides the attempt to change the moral law of the Ten Commandments, the man of sin has tampered with the law of heredity in the introduction of a supposedly immaculate conception of Mary for the purpose of Christ avoiding the results of the law of heredity and thus present the need for a counterfeit gospel and salvation. Another attempted change of law is in the area of health laws such as the law of clean and unclean animals. A final law that was tampered with is the year for a day principle. During the days of the Reformation the papacy introduced both the preterist and the futurist schemes to dislodge from the minds of thinking people the historicist year for a day principle.”

 

In Revelation 17:1-6 is written the following:

“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication; and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”

 

AT Jones says of these verses:

This is the Lord’s own description of the Roman Catholic Church. It will be seen at a glance that all who acknowledge her as their mother place themselves in very questionable company. She is a harlot who has committed fornication with the kings of the earth. With the wine of her fornication the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk; and she has made herself drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. In the vigorous language of the historian, “The Roman bishops have deluged Europe and Asia with blood.” Upon her bold, brazen forehead is written, “Mystery,” and it is the “Mystery of Iniquity.” And this is the character whom Protestant (?) doctors of divinity greet with the title of “beautiful mother,” “the mother of us all”! The word of God says, “Jerusalem which is above ... is the mother of us all.” Galatians 4:26. But here are “Protestant” divines who deny our heavenly mother, and salute “the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth,” as the mother, the beautiful mother, of them all. This was published February ..., and not yet have we seen a single paper that has repudiated, nor heard of a minister who has denied, this daughterly tribute to the “beautiful mother” of them all.

 

What was it that made the Church of Rome a harlot? She was not always so. Once she was the very excellence of purity and virtue. Said Paul to the church at Rome, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” — Signs of the Times July 20, 1888, p. 43

 

Percy Magan shares this insight:

Of the powers which rose upon the ashes of the empire of Rome, the kingdom of Spain was one. This people trace their lineage back to the woods of ancient Germania. In that coast cradle of nations they were known as the tribe of the Visigoths. Like all the other German tribes they were intensely fond of liberty, and knew far more of its true and governing principles than did the more highly educated and refined people of the Roman empire.

 

When Rome had filled her cup of tyranny and despotism to the full, Providence took these barbarous children of the North, and used them as an instrument in the hand of Heaven to wreak vengeance upon the guilty world-power. Under the leadership of the great chieftain, Alaric, the Visigoths everywhere defeated the Roman armies. By the year 436 AD, they were established in the peninsula of Spain.

 

For a long time the Visigoths remained true to the Arian faith, to which they had been converted from heathenism. For years they maintained a sturdy and uncompromising warfare against the princes and prelates of the Roman Catholic Church, who left untried no strategy of war, or seductions of peace, to accomplish their conversion and submission to the see of Rome.

 

Had the Visigoths persevered in their stand, they might have become the liberators, instead of the oppressors, of mankind. Both natural traits and religious tenets had admirably fitted them for this position. But the nation of Visigoths, like many a man, allowed the golden opportunity to pass by; and the opportunity came but once.

 

Neglecting to accept the high and lofty station offered them, they became instruments of the Roman Catholic Church. There is an ancient adage that a good slave always makes a good tyrant, and this has proved itself only too true in the 'case of the Spanish nation.

 

The bait of luxury, ease, and power held out by Rome was too tempting; and late in the sixth century they became orthodox. “The Peril of the Republic” p 41.

 

Spain became the seat of the Inquisition. Magan goes on to say:

The story of Spain, from first to last, is the record of a criminal case. Her history is naught but one prolonged crime. Forever has it been her boast that she has uncompromisingly denied freedom of conscience on the one hand, and equality before the law on the other. (Ibid p. 42)

 

But how does one get there…or not get there?  A.T. Jones has this counsel in conclusion.

What is the track of Romanism?—The track of Satan. O brethren, let us shake it off? Does not this lay on us an obligation everlastingly to examine ourselves, to watch the motives, to investigate the principles, which actuate us, to see whether Christ or Satan is manifested in us? Watch yourself, not some other brother; see that it is manifested in yourself, not in some committee or board, but in yourself. Look at it through the anointing of the heavenly eye-salve, that you may see and discern whether it is Christ who is your life and inspiration, or whether you have given place to the other spirit. Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald, June 6 1899.

 

It is those that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus who will be able to withstand the demonic powers that are about to be unleashed in this great battle between good and evil.

~Richard Kearns