The Great Apostasy
Seventh Lecture
INTRODUCTORY.
Doubtless, as is generally the case with this gospel, these lectures are reported as being antagonistic to the Church. And such reports create unjust prejudice against us, so I will say that no one in these meetings or at anytime ever heard from me a single word against the Church, in any place. I love the Church, "for her my tears shall fall, for her my prayers ascend." Nor am I opposed to houses of worship. It is a good thing for convenience that places be provided in which Christians can meet for worship and in which the people can gather to hear the Word of God. But it is a fact that in the history of the past, importance and sanctity have increased for the place just in proportion to the apostasy of the church from its original spirituality. It was not until 220 years after the new dispensation had commenced that houses of worship were first erected by
Christians. They had not time or opportunity for building houses of worship because of the persecu-258
tion which raged against the Church. In the reign of Alexander Severus, whose mother was a Christian, he was induced to give lands to the Christians and encourage them to build places of worship, which they did. But the next emperor destroyed them, and bloody persecutions continued to prevail until Constantine espoused the cause of Christianity, and gave the Church his protection. But the same time, by the union of the Church and the State, the protection of the government became its curse. Houses of worship were first permanently built in the reign of Constantine about 340 years after Christ. From that time the earthly house of worship became more conspicuous until Michael Angelo built the grand St. Peter's at Rome. In the second century Neander says Christians were so fearful of any attachment to earthly houses that they went even so far as to have scruples about meeting very long in one place lest they should regard with sanctity the place of meeting. When Justin Martyr, who lived in the year 155 A. D., was arraigned before the Roman government charged with the crime of Christianity, he was asked where the Christians met for worship. He said, "Every Christian. meets where he can and will, but to the Christian all places are alike, for God is a Spirit, and he seeks such to worship him as worship in spirit and in truth." So in the primitive Church permanence or sacredness was never attached to a place of worship, for that belonged to Judaism and paganism and now belongs
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to Romanism in its apostasy. The Church of Christ through the first centuries suffered the bloodiest persecutions in which three million martyrs were put to death; the Christians were a body of pilgrims and strangers on earth; they had no organism except the spiritual bonds which have united Christians in every age. But gradually when persecution ceased, the political began to encroach upon the spiritual Church. The pastors became virtually priests or princes having more or less temporal authority; but this earthly tendency was checked during the times of persecution when Christians were scattered and nothing held them together but spiritual bonds.
After the time of Constantine the ministry were supported by revenues from the government The Church became an appendage of the State which was the greatest curse to it in its history. Corruption came in like a flood, wickedness and hypocrisy prevailed under the forms and profession of Christianity; and continued to increase in the Church until the time of the Reformation. But there was a difference between the city churches and the body of Christians scattered through the country where there was less corruption; but under the money power of the cities corruption rapidly increased and persecution ceased.
I should be glad if I had time to go over the history of the primitive Church and through the centuries of the past. There is not any thing in which people need instruction outside of the Bible so much
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as Church history, especially the history of the persecutions and reformations of the past. In the country and mountain districts of Europe the true spiritual Church was to a great extent separated from papal corruption. During the 11th and the beginning of the 12th centuries, Southern France had a high degree of spiritual life and was entirely separated from Rome. Missionaries were sent by Pope Innocent III to convert Southern France back to Rome again, but they made a failure. The Bible Christians of those countries did not want to go back to Rome, so the wrath of the Pope was aroused, and he proclaimed a bloody crusade in imitation of the crusades to Palestine, and this bloody crusade raged forty years with some intermissions in which the whole of Southern France was made desolate and almost depopulated. Hundreds of thousands of Christians were slaughtered or fled for safety into other parts of Europe. But the best spiritual state of the Church existed when persecutions raged fiercest from the governments of this world and when the Church had least of worldly prosperity.
I call your attention now to the reading of the Scriptures which are of the greatest importance for these times, concerning the apostasy. 2 Thessalonians the second chapter, third and fourth verses.
2 Thess. 2:3, 4:
"3 Let no man deceive you by any means : for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;261
"4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."
"There shall come a falling away." There could be no falling away in the Bible sense except of the Church. The man of sin which is to appear, the son of perdition, is a special wickedness such as * never existed before. Every other form of sin has existed but a false Church of Christ and its divisions into sects. The man of sin spoken of exalts himself above all that is called God, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. God's temple, under the new covenant, is the Church. The man of sin is evidently the priestly power which has set itself above God. And any power in Christ's Church which steps in between the believer and Jesus Christ has usurped his authority. The believer's conscience admits no other Lord. I am glad that we have this plain Scripture descriptive of the apostasy.
2 Thess. 2: 5-10:
"5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, 1 told you these things?
"6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
"7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
"8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
"9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,262
"10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved."
That is, God would let or permit this iniquity to exist as he permits all evil as well as good to ripen for the final judgment subservient to his purposes of salvation for his Church. Satan's power of deception would, if possible, overcome the very elect. I will relate an instance of my own experience.
I came near being entrapped by sectarian Churches after I had been outside two years. They were talking of having a successful evangelist in a series of meetings. I said, in the corrupt state of those Churches, a revival and conversions were impossible. But the evangelist came and under his powerful preaching there were five hundred conversions. I was astonished and made a public confession and said that if God could work in such Churches, I could. I was no better than God. The sectarians rejoiced at my supposed recovery to the Churches. But the great revival left with the evangelist, and six weeks after I did not know of more than two or three who gave evidence of genuine conversion. I learned the delusive nature of revivals in false churches. I followed up the evangelist in other towns and saw the same deception and I personally rebuked the evangelist for his work. He did preach needed truth but could not stay long enough to convert the churches which used him as their tool to gather in less sinners than themselves.
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I saw that I had been deceived by this apparent work of God. I have learned that God may convert sinners anywhere if they exercise saving faith and these sham revivals and sects take the credit of such conversations in their meetings. This I have learned is deceiving honest souls more than any other argument of sectarian Babylon. Their good meetings, apparent conversions and Christians entrapped in their organizations, is blinding the religious world to the horrible wickedness of corporations falsely called churches which make merchandise of souls and the gospel as Peter describes, second Epistle, second chapter, first three verses.
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MIRACLE WORKING
SATAN'S METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS.
I understand that under the new covenant, after ordinances were cleared abolished, thirty-one years after Christ, we don't find miracle working for the confirmation of the Word. I haven't time to speak of miracles now, but you will find in the 2nd chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, third and fourth verses, miracles are spoken of as having confirmed the word in the introduction of the gospel, as though they were not continues at the time the Epistle to the Hebrews was written. Mormonism is built up on miracles. Christian Science, Spiritualism, and almost every form of deception claims more or less
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of miraculous power, and that is what deceives. The crowds will follow miracle workers. If I claimed to work miracles this house would not hold the crowds. But those who are drawn by miracles are not drawn by the Spirit or the Word. It is to deceive that men resort to carnal wonders which belong to the old covenant and not to the new. The Word is what Christian people want. If a man should come with power to raise the dead, if he taught contrary to this Book I would not hesitate to call him an imposter with the power of Satan. For this Word is greater than miracles. The Christian's faith does not depend upon miracles The greater works of which Christ speaks, is the raising the dead in trespasses and sin. A greater proof than other miracles is that saving power of God's Word and that is the proof to the world of the Christian religion. It is the power to make a bad man good. No lover of humanity or of God will ever say anything against a religion which can make a good man out of a bad man. That is the strongest argument against infidelity.Jesus gives us the cause of all errors and delusions when he says, "Light has come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light." This represents the condition of all who know of these meetings and have failed to respond to the opportunity for Bible lessons of special importance for our time.
This is a serious matter. It is perilous to trifle with the light of God. The sin is not of those who
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have a lack of knowledge, but those who refuse to become acquainted with the truth.
2 Thess. 2: 11-12:
"11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
"12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
PRAYER.
Almighty God, our Father, we are thankful that we have one more opportunity to bring the needed truth for our times to the ears of the people. And we are thankful that we have the Holy Scriptures which spread before us in every detail the very condition of things which we see in the religious world today. We rejoice that the remedy for all existing evil is at hand in the gospel of Jesus Christ thy Son. We now implore thy help, 0 God, in reading and searching the Scriptures that we may rightly understand them concerning the great apostasy of thy Church and the perils of these last days.
0 God, awaken conscience and open blind eyes to the needful truth concerning the great sin of the ages, the fallen bride which provokes the jealousy of the Bridegroom and endangers the souls of men.
Grant that unreasonable prejudice may be cleared away and all false ideas of thy Church That all thy people may know what Babylon is and and the call of God to come out of her which is now being sounded to all in captivity to escape her plagues.
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And to thee, 0 God, our strong Deliverer, will we ascribe all the glory and praise of our salvation through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
BIBLE PROPHECIES OF APOSTASY.
I call your attention to-night to the Bible prophecies of the great apostasy of the Christian Church. The mariner on the sea regards as most important those parts of his chart which show the rocks and shoals. He is not so much concerned about the sea where there is no danger. What should have the special attention of all Bible believers is its warnings of danger and apostasy in the history of the Church, and these most important portions of God's Word for our times are kept from the people by a hireling ministry.We have read in 2 Thessalonians the plain prophecy of the falling away, and the man of sin. I now read the same prophecy in 1 Timothy, 4th chapter, first three verses.
1 Timothy 4: 1-3.
"1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
"2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
"3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth."
"The spirit speaketh expressly." It is of special importance beyond other Scripture, that in the "lat
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ter times some shall depart from the faith." These are the very times. Faith has almost died out from the earth. Infidelity abounds, and the worst form of it is under the Christian profession. These words are spoken of the Church, for none others can be said to have had faith from which to depart. "Seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy." That is the Church, for the word hypocrisy designates only those who profess Bible faith and, are false. "Conscience seared." No sinners are harder than false professors. "Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats." This marks Rome, and religions of self-torture and fastings for holiness, in bodily exercise and flesh mortifications. This shows the opposite of justification by faith. Salvation by works.
Then again in 2 Timothy, 3rd and 4th chapters:
2 Timothy 3: 1-5.
"1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
"2 Foi men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
"3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
"4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pelasure more than lovers of God;
"5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away."2 Timothy 14.
"1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom ;268
"2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
"3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears;
"4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."A form of godliness," a Christian profession without the power to live righteously. Different manifestations of it are described. Just what we see to-day in the professed churches. From such we are to turn away. Jesus says : "First of all beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy." Luke 12: 1. Here we see further the apostasy shows a hireling ministry, "Heap to themselves teachers." Preachers of their own instead of God's ministers.
The time will come when the Church will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts will hire their own preachers. "Heap to themselves teachers," hire them with their own money. This was never God's order for his ministry. See Micah 3: 11. Hire teachers who will please them, be their tools, make God's prophets their own servants ! This is the climax of all wickedness ! For organizations to control God's ministry, hire them as clerks and farm hands-to preach what they bargain for! They are doing the same as to hire and dismiss Jesus Christ. "He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that ' receiveth me receiveth him that sent me."
These are Christ's own words and not my opinion.
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PETER'S PROPHECY OF THE APOSTASY.
2 Peter 2: 1-3.
"1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
"2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
"3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not."This is another plain description of just what we see to-day. The word heresy in this passage is a Greek word the English of which is sect. Our modern word heresy has a different meaning. See old edition of Webster's dictionary. In the Scriptures it simply means a stet. From the Greek aireo, to choose, hence a division made by a choice of some idea which causes a division.
"With feigned words shall make merchandise of you." This is precisely what these denominations do. All' members are owned by the sect organization just as property is owned by corporations. Hence Peter calls them damnable. Merchandise of souls in religion is damnable business.
"Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and whose damnation slumbereth not."
This is the severest language possible against this sin. So I cannot be blamed for the severity of the
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Stumblingstone, which causes so much offense, for the Holy Spirit dictates the same language. Again Paul says in Titus 3: 10:
"A man that is a heretic (sectarian) after the first and second admonition reject."
This also shows God's view of the apostasy.
BABYLON THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS.Revelations 17: 1-5.
"1 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 o* the great whore that sitteth upon many waters;
"2 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.
"3 So he carried me away in the spirit into tha wilderness : and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coh,uro1 beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
"4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scariot colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
"5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."This wonderful prophecy of the harlot Babylon described in the 17th and 18th of Revelations, also in the 14th, has been understood by all reformers for centuries to be of the false church. No honest reader knowing the Bible can fail to see its applica
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tion. The strongest figure in the Bible to show the relation of the Church to God and to Christ is that of the relation of a wife to a husband, the most intimate of all earthly relations and the highest earthly love and jealousy, and source of greatest felicity or misery according to whether love is reciprocated or' outraged.
Ezekiel 16 uses this figure of God's jealousy for the chastity and fidelity of his bride the Church. Also in the twenty-first chapter of Revelations the Church is represented as the Lamb's wife and the heavenly Jerusalem, as in the 17th and 18th chapters, the fallen Church is represented by Babylon and a fallen wife.
The Mother of Harlots signifies she has daughters just as the term Babylon, from the divisions at the tower of Babel, implies the sectarian divisions of the religious world.
God shows us the fallen woman, the fallen wife of Christ. The waters represent the peoples and nations over whom the false Church has her corrupting power. The woman is on a scarlet colored beast. The scarlet color belongs to Rome as described in this chapter, the beast is the temporal power of the pope, the seven heads seven mountains, seven hills of Rome, the names of blasphemy sectarian names from this mother of harlots.
"6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
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"7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I wil tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
"8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
"9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
"10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he come th, he must continue a short space.
"11 And ,the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
"12 And the ten horns which thou rawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
"13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
"14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords and King of kings : and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
"15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are people, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
"16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
"17 For God bath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
"18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth."273
We see from this description the unmistakeable object of God's jealousy and abhorrence which all other Scriptures and the facts we see of sectarian
Babylon, fully accord with as the great apostasy. The figure of a lewd woman clothed in purple and scarlet, decked with costly ornaments, having a cup of abomination to intoxicate the nations with her carnality is a picture which no spiritual mind can
fail to understand as precisely the false Church which is bewitching the nations and the people with the charms of her carnal religion. There is no language more strikingly truthful than this imagery of Revelation which provokes the fury of the great Bridegroom she has outraged by her going after other lovers and playing the harlot at the street corners of our cities, capturing a silly world by her charms and enticing multitudes into her steepled sanctuaries of religious prostitution!
Upon the details of this prophecy I will simply say of the seven kings mentioned in verse 10, five are fallen. At the time John wrote Nero the sixth was in power, the seventh had not yet come between Nero and the pope who was plainly the eighth. The beast was the. temporal. power that was, but failed, yet existed in the eighth, the pope. The historian Gibbon represents the decline and fall of the temporal power of Rome as restored again in the pope which combined with his religious authority, the throne of the Cesars raised to a greater temporal power than ever existed before.274
The ten kings were the ten governments of this world which through hundreds of years were joined to the pope and persecuted the true saints of God, but in later times turned against Rome. In the French revolution the priests of Rome were slaughtered in God's judgment for the horrors of St. Bartholemew's massacre, and the Huguenots and W aldensien martyrs and others, fifty millions Rome had slaughtered. Garibaldi beseiged the pope and delivered Italy, whom Napoleon had before conquered. And now France is driving out the papal power over her public schools and doubtless in this country and in Europe the infidel anarchist may be used as God's avenging rod to chastise and destroy this horrible monster of the ages, unless gospel truth breaks the power of the papal beast.
Passing on to the eighteenth chapter we read:
"1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
"2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
"3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of
her delicacies.
"4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."275
Babylon was a city on the banks of the Euphrates where the children of Israel were carried into captivity seventy years-a rival to Jerusalem, the greatest city of antiquity. The word Babylon means confusion, from the tower of Babel described in Genesis 11 chapter, 1st to 9th verses. Undertaking to build a tower to heaven, God confounded the language of the builders so they could not work together. So Rome, the modern Babylon, began an ecclesiastical tower, the antitype of the city and tower on the Euphrates. God came down and confounded the language of the builders in the history of the reformation so that all the reformers separated from Rome and from each other. God made it impossible to continue the tower of an earthly church corporation which would. crush out all liberty. The sectarian divisions admit of. some liberty which would be impossible if united in one monster corporation.
Just as a mother of harlots with her daughters is a vivid picture of Rome and her brood of false Protestant sects, so is the city of Babylon with her worldly glory and wealth and Babel origin a wonderful picture of the glory and power of the ecclesiastical Babel of Rome and her brood of earthly sect churches.
Great Babylon was a city sixty miles in circumference, fifteen miles square, walls three hundred feet high, eighty-seven feet thick with towers rising much higher, and the walls of bituminous brick,
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glistening in the sun, the temple of Belus six hundred feet high, surmounted by a golden image forty feet high, with hanging gardens and grand palaces, one two miles square and one four miles in circumference on opposite sides of the river, and every thing on the most magnificent scale of architectural beauty and grandeur; this city the concentration of all that could gratify the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life and the world's idolatry, was a most fitting type of the false church whose glory is entirely of earth and devoid of spirituality.
God's people were captives in Babylon, and there hung their harps on the willows in mourning for Jerusalem their beloved city home. The 137th Psalm is full of pathos expressive of the dreary bondage of Israel in that strange city full of idolatry and wickedness It was the most gorgeously beautiful and attractive for the flesh, but Oh, how unlike Jerusalem, the city of God and holy religion !
This captivity of Israel is a wonderful picture of God's true children in spiritual Babylon. Oh, what sighs of grief have millions heaved from heavy hearts amid the luxuries and idolatry of earthly churches, where they were in bondage. My neck as pastor was under the yoke of Israel's oppressor until God led me out with thousands of others into the liberty of spiritual Jerusalem restored.
There can be no more vivid description of the false church than the eighteenth of Revelations.
"Babylon the great has fallen." Just as the
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mother of harlots and daughters are fallen from the chastity of Christ's true bride. So is Babylon, every sect of which from Rome down to the last
that man has organized, was once a holy church. Rome was once a body of saints when addressed by Paul's Epistles, so Methodists when Wesley led them out of the English harlot, but both have fallen. The English Church was pure when it came out of Rome composed of Ridleys, Cramers and Bonners, Friths and Tyndalls, but Henry the Eighth debauched it. The Presbyterian, since Calvin and Farel and Knox were the life of reform, has fallen from her spiritual origin to a petrified corpse, beautiful in death but without the power of Calvin or Knox or the stern virtue of Swiss or Scotch Calvinists of old times.
The Evangelicals have fallen from Albright, the Lutherans from Luther, the Baptists from Roger Williams, the Quakers from George Fox, and the Puritans from the Pilgrims of the Mayflower, and all the persecuted Huguenots and Protestant sects which fled from Roman Catholic tyranny have fallen, and now obsequiously coquette Mother Rome and are becoming assimilated to the .old bag on the Tiber and her dissolute ways with the world, and her fornication with the rulers and politicians who depend on her votes at the election polls. Fallen!) Yes, every Christian of seventy can see that all churches have fallen from the piety and purity of his own memory. Not one of existing sects would
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allow its founder in its pulpit to-day. Lutherans would not tolerate Luther, nor Methodists Wesley, iior Congregationalists Jonathan Edwards, nor Quakers George Fox, nor Presbyterians Calvin, nor Baptists Roger Williams, nor Catholics St. Peter or St. Paul. Yes, all Babylon has fallen indeed!!
What a Babel are Babylon sects ! Six hundred and sixty-six, more or less, Christian sects, with man power at the head, and Christ's name attached ! Christ's name stamped on the bogus currency to make it pass just as rogues stamp twenty dollars on worthless paper to make it pass.
Such is the great Babylon of Christian sects from Rome down to the Campbellites, Latter Day Saints, Dowieites and long-haired Israelites, et cetera, all claiming to be the true Church of Jesus Christ ! It is a wonder that the religious population of earth are not all in asylums for the insane ! It is enough to set a man crazy to hear this confusion of tongues ! I think by this time my readers begin to understand the Book of Revelation on Babylon.
Hear further what the angel says : "Habitation of devils (!) Hold of every foul spirit and cage of every unclean and hateful bird!" What wonder ! How could it be otherwise? The father of lies must surely feel at home in this confusion of Christian sects ! Lies are the very nature of such Christianity since Christ's true Church is known by its unity. John 17:21-23. All Babylon sects are saying, "Lo, here is Christ, and lo, there is Christ." Jesus says,
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"Believe it not, go not after them." So I have Christ's endorsement in all the severity of the Stumblingstone against Babylon sects and their father the devil. Habitation of devils, indeed, the whole brood of lying spirits is there from the bottomless pit ! What could be a more seductive table for a festival in hell than a carnal man-made body of Christ cooked and spiced for the palate of hypocrites and devils, transubstantiated by priestly prayers, into the supposed body and blood of the true Lamb of God ! Yet this is the iniquity of sectarian Babylon, the supreme mockery. of false religion in these last days when earth's moral harvest is ripe for the sickle of vengeance.
All nations have drunk of the wine of her fornication, her carnal religion. Intoxicated by her vile religion, conscience is universally seared. Kings of the earth are her paramours, Congressmen, government officials, statesmen and presidents have committed fornication with her for her votes, and the merchants of the earth, oil kings and coal kings have waxed rich from the abundance of her delicacies !
"And I heard another voice saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues." God's people are in this Babylon. A more than seventy years' captivity have Christians suffered in the mother church and all her daughters. I have often heard that I condemn all in the sects as going to hell. I have always cited this word of God to his people in
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sect organizations. When Methodist societies were first organized I believe the majority were God's true Church. So of all other sect organizations of true Christians. But man's corporation grew and spiritual life ran out until all were in bondage to earthly systems of idolatry as they now exist. And God calls them out lest they partake of her sins and receive her plagues. We are not "come outers" of God's Church but of bogus Churches man has made. We are "stay inners" and not "come outers." As Jesus says: "Except ye abide in me ye cannot bear fruit." Those who abide in Christ join no sect, but if we have been entrapped in foul Babylon we have to come out as from a house of prostitution which we ignorantly entered.
We will now continue reading this wonderful eighteenth chapter on Babylon.
"5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
"6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works : in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double."7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow."
"Her sins have reached unto heaven." All other sins are eclipsed by this Harlot Babylon, this house of merchandise where Jesus and souls are the stock in trade and vast corporations are enriched out of the religious superstitions of mankind, yea, even out
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of the very body and blood of Jesus Christ ! God will reward her! What then must be the vengeance of a jealous Christ, the wrath of the Lamb? The cup of persecution she compelled millions of martyrs to drink will be filled to her double ! The false church sits as a queen and glorifies herself and boasts how many converts she has made, and her missions spread around the globe ! Even the Chinese and Japanese marvel at her many sects and boast the superior unity of the worshippers of Confucius and Brahma. But in face of the righteous rebuke of the pagan gods, Babylon Christians are pushing their contradictory divisions over heathen lands against idolatrous religions more consistent than their own. And just now when The Hague peace conferences of Christian nations led on by the Czar of Russia, proclaim the millennial dawn, when swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, armaments are increasing to insure peace, and the world's rulers with garments dripping with the blood of the most sanguinary wars of history are coming together from battle-fields of deadly hate to talk Christian love and national alliances for peace, while a general armistice is improved to- perfect diplomatic intrigues, coalitions :and plots for more effective slaughter and supremacy for the prize belt of national ambition. Such is the world's fruit of Great Babylon's Christianity. The harlot church sits a queen indeed and, boasts the extent of her religious conquests, but does not tell how many
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hypocrites are in her fold, or blood of nations schooled in her hypocrisy, she has shed, or millions she has deceived now wailing in hell ! 0 boastful Queen, claiming to be no widow, yea, the Bride of Christ, and shall see no sorrow, whether under the wing of the Pope or the Czar, or harlot sect daughters of Rome whose proud steeples grace all cities and countries, your falseness to Christ will soon be rewarded.
But hear more of God's word for Babylon from the eighth to the eleventh verse.
"8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
"9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
"10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon. that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
"11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more."Her plagues are coming, for "strong is the Lord who judgeth her."
How much is said of the kings of the earth who have committed fornication with her and have lived deliciously with her. The whole false church being organized under civil government naturally unite church and state. The fornication spoken of is of
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course all figurative. I will cite one instance to illustrate. The Hon. Mark Hanna, a great politician of the world and as honorable as any, made a great feast at his grand residence and invited fifteen of the head Bishops of the Methodist Church for whom the entertainment was prepared. They all attended and Revelations 18: 9 was literally fulfilled. They all fared deliciously together, the politician, a king. of American politics then, and the chief daughter of Harlot Babylon committed spiritual fornication together. And the fifteen Methodist Bishops did then and there vote Mark Hanna a full member of the Methodist Church without any six months probation ! This is a historic fact which I published before in the Stumblingstone. Is it any wonder that all the Methodist Bishops voted for McKinley? He was doubtless as good a President as any we ever had. But I mention this as one instance to show how not only Rome, but her richest daughters, all have spiritual intercourse and cohabitation with the rulers of this and every country. God help us to understand Babylon the false or fallen Church of Christ ! The true followers of Jesus have no attractions nor affinity for politicians or the great men of this world. The true Church are pilgrims here.
These Scriptures teach that such honeymoons with the harlot Babylon won't always last. "The kings of the earth shall bewail her when they see the smoke of her burnings." The merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her, for no man
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buyeth their merchandise any more." Here follows a list of the riches furnished by the merchants for the trade of Babylon.
"12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk and scarlet, and all thine wood and all manner of vessels of ivory, and all manner of vessels of precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
"13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
"14 And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.
"15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing."Here we have an inventory of the riches of Babylon, the earthly church, furnished by the merchants of this world. They are the mourners in this picture of the burning of Babylon. Here we see the earthliness of the false church, fallen Babylon and fallen Bride of Christ.
"16 And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls !
"17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off.
"18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying. What city is like unto this great city!
"19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried,285
weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were all made rich, all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
"20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
"21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all."The contrast between Christ's Church, which is not of this world and this luxurious city, which concentrates all the riches and glory of this world, is the most vivid picture possible showing the false church in contrast with the true. Take all the grand steepled sanctuaries and religious houses of modern Christendom and place them on one vast plain and we would have a city that would far surpass the magnificence, wealth and glory of old Babylon on the Euphrates. Put all the palaces .of kings and government buildings, theatres and resorts of pleasure, monuments of art and pomp and show of earth together and the earthly luxuries, pride and worldly show of Babylon, the fallen Bride of Christ would surpass them all in her carnal attractions for the lust of the flesh, lust of the eves and pride of life! In every respect the true Bride of Christ is just the opposite to Babylon in all her -attractions. Her beauty is spiritual and heavenly. Christ's followers are chosen out of this world, their adorning is not with perishable gold or silks or satins or broadcloth or costly furniture and works of art, but the
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adorning of Christian graces, meekness, goodness, temperance, purity, love, abhorrence of sin and lies, delight in the truth, and beautiful with chastity; honesty and every moral virtue. These jewels, which the merchants of earth can neither buy nor sell, beautify the Church of Jesus Christ !
O you proud religious devotees of these fashionable churches who regard with contempt the lowly poor, whose garments of the flesh are tattered and homely, will be filled with shame and horror when you see the humble Christian you on earth despised, clothed with white raiment, invisible here, hailed by the angelic throng as the favored guests of heaven's wedding nuptials, and you with all the vile harlot hosts shunned as lepers, with garments spotted by the flesh beyond all cleansing, or naked and exposed to loathing and everlasting contempt, from the virtuous, to be forever abhorred and despised by the pure and holy
O give me the company of despised pilgrims here who follow Christ outside earthly camps, rather than the hypocrite crowd of earthly churches whose glory will be turned into shame when Christ's Church triumphs, and "the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
The church which enriches the merchants of the earth and all who have ships on the sea by the import of costly fabrics is not the pilgrim Church of Christ whose treasures are in heaven! The stained glass windows and Gothic architecture of Babylon
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shows the study of art itself is to carve religion in stone and wood, and cast the shaded colors of light in devotional hues to intensify the idolatry and carnal worship of the fallen church ! Since spirituality is unknown, all the wisdom of physical science is requisite to intensify carnal devotion until the souls of the harlot church are soothed to sleep in her embrace and imagine themselves in heaven when on the verge of hell.
I have heard the choirs and music of Babylon in Catholic Rome bear the worship of the idolaters in felicity of feeling to the very arches of heaven, and cause them to imagine that the golden harps of angelic hosts were blending with their devotions ! The next verse gives us this music of Babylon so that we cannot mistake the lesson.
Rev. IS: 22.
"22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more in thee;""The voice or harpers and musicians and pipers and trumpeters." Here we have the machine worship of a carnal religion as belonging to Babylon. This is an essential part of the earthly church to make it complete. Carnal worship is inseparable from it. Fiddles and organs are necessary. David and Solomon had them. They had many wives and concubines, too. The old law had an earthly temple.
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Those who go back to. Judaism must also have David's harps.
All now necessary to worship in Babylon is to turn a crank and we can have singing, preaching and prayers ! Money turns the crank, and machine worship runs to the satisfaction of a carnal religion. Spiritual worship is unknown in Babylon. The living Word and hymns of living truth in song from hearts on fire, .,.ith backwoods plainness and fervor, would horrify worshippers of modern churches.
But hymns which express saving truth the devil's thundering organ drowns. So true worship cannot be heard, nor anything else but thunder of a wooden machine which has more heart than the choir, preacher and church put together! Such is Babylon, the fallen church! "There shall be mockers in the last days." Jude 18.
I will now finish this wonderful chapter on the great apostasy.
Rev. 18: 23, 24 and 19: 1, 2.
"23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
"24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth."1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
"2 For true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand."289
This closes the most wonderful picture of the great apostasy, the Harlot Babylon, which has provoked the wrath of God and the Lamb beyond all other sin of earth, the greatest power of evil that ever cursed humanity. In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth. There is no difference between Rome now and centuries ago. There is no difference between Rome and any Protestant sect man has made. Not one but what would use the same force to crush the truth and the liberty of conscience that Rome used if they had the power The only thing that excludes the gospel I preach from sectarian pulpits is just what shed the blood of Protestant martyrs. If I should exercise my right as God's minister and go into any pulpit of the denominations with this gospel the final result would be imprisonment or the insane asylum or death. Such liberty would, be crushed to-day as surely as in any age or country of other times. Human nature is just the same in its enmity to God as ever in the past. Education may change the methods of opposition to the truth, but not its final suppression by any earthly church or sect. Christians in the sects would. not fight the truth but would be driven out in the inevitable -conflict. The only reason why persecution has so nearly ceased is because the faith which once provoked it has so nearly ceased.
The power of the earthly church which combines
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church and state, is the greatest power the world ever knew. It was a gradual growth in the first centuries until the Bishop of Rome assumed the temporal power in the sixth century. The pope grew in power over Europe until Hildebrand about the year one thousand brought the governments of this world into subjection.
The emperor of Germany, Henry the Fourth, dared to resist the Pope. Then the Pope proclaimed the allegiance of the subjects of the German Emperor absolved. This brought the emperor to terms. He saw his Catholic subjects forsaking him. He fled in alarm to Rome, prostrated himself at the feet of the Pope, and the great pontiff put his foot on the emperor's neck and proclaimed himself as vicar of Christ above all the kingdoms of this world, and from that time on, his rule in Europe was absolute.
And all through the dreary centuries of the papal supremacy were the dark ages and bloody persecutions waged at intervals against the faithful Christians who dared to assert the supremacy of Jesus Christ above all church authority.
Fifty millions of Protestant martyrs sealed with their blood their faith in the very same gospel we preach of Christ's headship over every individual member of his church, who forbids his disciples forever to call any man master but himself in matters of conscience and religion.
This faith has cost much in the history of the
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past. It costs the same to-day. But we read of the voice of "much people in heaven saying Alleluia ! Salvation and glory, and honor and power unto the Lord our God!" This is heaven's song! This is my heresy on earth, the very same which cost the blood of all the martyrs. The heresy which denounces the false church, Babylon and anti-Christ, and proclaims the exclusive headship of Christ over his Church, without any other priesthood or organization by man, repudiating all Churches except Christians simply, in one locality or throughout the world, known not as members of any society man has made, but as members of Christ simply, and no Church book of names but that kept in heaven.
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