Part 14 (1/2)
Reader, this is the work of reformation that G.o.d is now accomplis.h.i.+ng in the world. Babylon is spiritually fallen, and G.o.d is calling his people out. In the well-known Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Rev. A.R. Fausset, commenting on Rev. 18:4, has well said: ”Even in the Romish Church, G.o.d has a people; but they are in great danger; their only safety is in coming out of her at once. So also in every apostate or world-conforming church, there are some of G.o.d's visible and true church, who, if they would be safe, _must come out_.”
When literal Babylon was overthrown, the Jews escaped to their own land. Likewise G.o.d's people in spiritual Babylon are commanded to come out, and with songs of rejoicing they are to make their way to Mount Zion, and then lend all their efforts to the one work of restoring primitive truth, thus making Jerusalem ”the joy of the whole earth.”
Like the Jews of old, ”the ransomed of the Lord _shall return_ and COME TO ZION with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away”
(Isa. 35:10).
The Psalmist informs us that in Babylon the Jews hung their harps on the willows and wept when they remembered Zion. When their captors demanded of them the songs of Zion, they answered despairingly, ”How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?” (Psa. 137:1-4).
Zion's songs were _songs of deliverance_; hence the Jews could not sing them in captivity. So also has it been in spiritual Babylon. But when the ransomed of the Lord ”return and come to Zion,” ”songs and everlasting joy” break forth again.
The Revelator describes this glorious result after the period of the apostasy in these words: ”And I saw as it were a sea of gla.s.s mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of gla.s.s, _having the harps of G.o.d_. And they _sing the song of Moses_ [a song of deliverance] the servant of G.o.d, and the song of the Lamb [a song of redemption]” (Rev. 15:2, 3). Those who have returned from Babylon have heavenly harps and can sing the songs of Zion. Praise G.o.d!
”From Babel confusion most gladly I fled, And came to the heights of fair Zion instead; I'm feasting this moment on heavenly bread; I'll never go back, I'll never go back.
”The beast and his image, his mark, and his name, My love or allegiance no longer can claim, Though men may exalt them to honor and fame; I'll never go back again.”
The prophecies already cited make clear a mighty religious movement before the end of time, a movement designed to triumph over the apostasy. Since the apostasy was twofold in its nature, comprehending a corruption of evangelical faith and the development of ecclesiasticism, it is evident that the Last Reformation must both restore primitive truth and eliminate ecclesiasticism, thus bringing back to the world the original conception of the church as embracing the whole divine family under the direct moral and spiritual dominion of Christ. It is also evident from the prophecies that this is to be accomplished by literally forsaking the systems of man-rule just as ancient Israel was restored after the captivity by G.o.d's people leaving Babylon and coming home to Zion.
Zion represents the church in its primitive, unified condition under the government and law of Christ alone. Babylon represents a foreign rule and another law. The two systems are fundamentally different.
This difference was true in the type and must therefore be true in the ant.i.type. In the old days of Israel's glory foreigners visited Jerusalem, but their presence in the city of G.o.d did not make them Israelites. And at one time the people of G.o.d were carried into captivity in Babylon, but their presence in that foreign, heathen city _did not make them Babylonians_.
This distinction is also clear in the ant.i.typical relation. We do not have to go to prophetic symbols to find in the New Testament clear predictions of the rise of a false Christianity in opposition to the true. They stand out in marked contrast in the prophecy. On the one side there is a false religious system described as a beast power reigning. On the other side is placed in contrast a company that have gotten the victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark, and they stand on the sea of gla.s.s, having the harps of G.o.d. The mother of harlots appears, but in contrast therewith is seen a pure woman, the bride of Christ. In contrast with Babylon we have Zion.
The sect system, wherein ecclesiasticism reigns and where the full truth in all its purity can not be taught and practised, does not represent the true church, but Babylon. The system is foreign. It contains, however, many _who are not Babylonians_ but children of the divine family--Israelites indeed. The awful judgments of G.o.d p.r.o.nounced against Babylon are directed against the false system itself and the real beast-wors.h.i.+pers it contains, not against the true people of G.o.d, who love their Lord and are willing to walk in the light of his Word as fast as they are able to understand it. When we consider that this sect system has been the means of deceiving millions--millions who will come up in that last day and plead their religious profession, only to hear the awful words, ”Depart from me, I never knew you”--when we consider, I say, these evil results, we can not but repeat the words of the prophecy concerning the overthrow of Babylon, ”True and righteous are His judgments.” The commandment of G.o.d is, ”_Come out of her_, MY PEOPLE, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and THAT YE RECEIVE NOT OF HER PLAGUES.”
The movement to ignore sect lines and bring the true people of G.o.d into unity is not based upon a mere interpretation of prophecy, however. The necessity of such a work is being felt by the true people of G.o.d everywhere, even those who make no particular claims to knowledge of prophetic interpretation. Knowledge that the ecclesiastical systems of the present day do not represent the real church outlined in the New Testament is all that is absolutely necessary in order to stir the heart for reformatory action. Departure from the truth of G.o.d carries with it responsibility on the part of all those who become awakened to that departure--_responsibility to return to the Bible standard_. A final reformation there must and would be even if it had never been predicted by the prophets of old; for Christ, the great ever-living head of the church, would at the proper time pour out upon his servants the spirit of judgment against all unscriptural systems and forms of wors.h.i.+p and demand the restoration of the pure church of the morning time of our era.
[Sidenote: The future prospect]