The battle between Christ and satan for the control of human hearts is intensifying as we near the close of probation. God, who is not willing that any should perish, makes two great appeals to each one of us. Our response to these appeals determines our eternal destiny.
The first is found in Matthew 11:28-30: “
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Notice, there are no limitations as to who may come to Jesus - all are invited. And there are no guidelines as to which burdens we can bring to Him. He accepts them all – regardless of how dark or heavy they are.
The second appeal is found in the 3 Angels Message of Revelation 14: “
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth – to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people – saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water’” (v. 6-7).
This angel proclaims an everlasting gospel, not a progressive gospel that changes with the theologies and lifestyles of the times. It is the same gospel that was proclaimed from Mount Sinai, the same gospel lived and taught by Jesus, the same gospel proclaimed to the world by Peter, Paul and others in the early church. This gospel has two key elements:
1) To “fear God and give glory to Him.” We do this by living in joyful obedience to His Word. Worship without obedience is not pleasing to God. Jesus says “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:8-9.
2) To “Worship Him who made heaven and earth…” Notice the reason given for why we should worship God: it’s not because of what Jesus did for us on Calvary, it’s because of who He is – the Creator of heaven and earth. Calvary would mean nothing for us if the Man on that center cross was not our Creator!
There’s an urgency in this final appeal because God’s judgment has started. Every case will be decided on the basis of how we have lived, not on our profession of belief. Jesus says:
“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his works…Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:12,14).
The first angel’s message puts a spotlight on the 4th commandment which is the only commandment that tells us who the Lawgiver is and why He alone is worthy of our worship.
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work…For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:10, 11).
God set aside the seventh day Sabbath as a weekly call to worship Him as our Creator. Throughout the Bible we find God’s claim to worship is tied to His creative power. “
O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (Psalm 95:6). "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created" (Revelation 4:11).
As long as the fact that He is our Creator continues to be a reason why we should worship Him, so long will the Sabbath continue to be a memorial to Him as the only true God.
The world will be divided into just two groups before Jesus returns. It won’t be those who are “Christians” and those who aren’t; it will be those who fear God and worship Him as the Creator and those who don’t. Both of these groups are described in Revelation 14. The first group (verses 1-5), is referred to as the 144,000 who have God’s name written in their minds; are not defiled by women, a reference to the harlot Babylon, and her daughters; who follow the Lamb wherever He goes”, and have no deceit in their mouth. They proclaim the truth of God’s Word unmixed with the false teachings of man.
This is the group the devil is enraged at. They are first mentioned in Revelation 12:17:
“The dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
In Bible prophecy a woman is used as the symbol of a church. A pure woman represents a faithful church, an impure woman represents an unfaithful church.
The second group is found in Revelation 14:8-9 and are referred to as Babylon, an impure woman, who has fallen because she drinks the wine of fornication. This group worship the beast and his image and have his mark their forehead (they believe his agenda), or on their hand (they don’t believe it but go along with it out of fear, peer pressure, etc.).
Revelation 17:3-5 provides more detail about this corrupt church: “
And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet…having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.”
This red dragon represents satan (see Revelation 12:3-9). Babylon, though she looks “Christian”, is actually sitting on satan instead of sitting with Christ. How deceptive! Chapter 18:2-3 tells us she
“is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.”
This is shocking! How does a professed Christian church become the dwelling place of demons? By seeking popularity with the world above faithfulness to God. As Jesus said of the Jewish nation:
“These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8-9).
What is “the wine of her fornications” which Babylon offers to the world?
“The wine of Babylon is the exalting of the false and spurious sabbath above the Sabbath which the Lord Jehovah hath blessed and sanctified for the use of man, also [it is] the immortality of the soul. These kindred heresies, and the rejection of the truth, convert the church into Babylon” (Selected Messages, Vol. 2, p. 68).
Satan rebelled in heaven because he was jealous of Jesus. (See Isaiah 14:12-14.) He wanted to take the place of Jesus, but he had at least 2 strikes against him: 1) He was a created being – not the Creator, and 2) As such he was not self-existing. Like the rest of creation he is dependent upon God for life. Only the Godhead are, immortal or self-existing.
When rebellion spread to this planet satan attacked God on both of these points. The first attack was made at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the Garden of Eden. God had given Adam and Eve just one restriction – they could not eat from the forbidden tree or they would die. Satan met Eve at that tree one day and said: “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4).
Here he served Eve the wine of the immortality of the soul. Satan said she would not die but continue living in a higher state of being.” This wine is still being served in the fallen churches of Babylon today. This lie is the foundation for the doctrine of eternal torment for the wicked which is also being served up in most of the churches in the world. Yes, the world is drunk on this wine of Babylon’s fornication.
Babylon has also drunk Satan’s wine that God did not create the world in six literal day according to the Biblical account. All but a small handful of Christian churches have accepted some variation of the theory of evolution, thus discarding God as the Creator, and His seventh day Sabbath as the memorial of that fact. In its place they have accepted the pagan “day of the sun” in honor of Christ’s resurrection.
Tell me, which of these two women should we be going to for instruction in righteousness in these last days when the hour of God’s judgment has come? God Himself gives the answer in Revelation 18:4-5:
“And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”
As stern as this verse is, it still offers hope. Many of God’s people are still in Babylon. There are honest hearted people who have not heard or understood the truths about the 7th day Sabbath, the state of man in death, and other Bible truths that are not being taught in Babylon. When they hear these truths they will heed God’s appeal to come out of her.
I like the way Ellen White frames it in The Great Controversy, p. 390:
“Notwithstanding the spiritual darkness and alienation from God that exist in the churches which constitute Babylon, the great body of Christ's true followers are still to be found in their communion. There are many of these who have never seen the special truths for this time. Not a few are dissatisfied with their present condition and are longing for clearer light. They look in vain for the image of Christ in the churches with which they are connected. As these bodies depart further and further from the truth, and ally themselves more closely with the world, the difference between the two classes will widen, and it will finally result in separation. The time will come when those who love God supremely can no longer remain in connection with such as are "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."
Friends, why should we who have the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, be going to Babylon for spiritual instruction when God is calling His people to come out of her? Babylon has nothing to offer the 144,000. God says: “The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; so what wisdom do they have?” (Jeremiah 8:9).
What happens to those who refuse to break away from their love affair with Babylon? Revelation 14:9-10 gives the answer:
“Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”
The final conflict is not between professed Christians and the world. It is between those who “keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus” and the rest of the world who don’t.
Being a Seventh-day Adventist doesn’t guarantee we are “safe.” There are many Babylonians who are members of the Adventist church. God’s servant warns us that as things start coming to a close,
“at that time the superficial, conservative class, whose influence has steadily retarded the progress of the work, will renounce the faith and take their stand with its avowed enemies, toward whom their sympathies have long been tending. These apostates will then manifest the most bitter enmity, doing all in their power to oppress and malign their former brethren and to excite indignation against them. This day is just before us” (5T. p. 463).
What will your response be to God’s appeal? Will you make a clean break from Babylon? Will you hold fast to God’s everlasting gospel as given in the Bible, instead of Babylon’s ever changing gospel?
“The greatest want of the world is the want of men - men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall” (Education, p. 57).
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Dick Bullock is the pastor of 3 churches in “the Thumb” of Michigan.