The Closing Messages of the Gospel

THE SECOND MESSAGE.—We have claimed that the message of the first angel has been announced. We also hold that the second followed in the given order. It was not the intention of Eld. Miller and others who preached the advent near and the termination of the prophetic periods, especially the 2300 days, to form a separate church upon these doctrines. The numerous converts who were the fruit of their labors were told to unite with any church they felt free to, only prepare for the coming of the Lord. Those in the several denominations who believed the doctrine, of course made it a theme of conversation and exhortation. This annoyed those who did not love the doctrine; and it came to be the case that some were expelled from their churches for no other reason, than making this hope their theme. They loved the Lord; they loved his appearing, and believed it was at hand; and how could they be content to be silent respecting the close of probation and the awfully sublime and momentous event of the coming of the Judge of the living and the dead?

When they saw that this glorious theme was distasteful to their brethren who professed to love the Lord; and that the appearing of Christ, instead of being loved, (2 Tim. 4:8,) was decidedly rejected, the cry was raised, in the providence of God, as we believe, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," and as the result some 50,000 left the churches with which they had been associated. This is a historic fact of the autumn of 1844. It was well known to believers, although it was not so extensively known and noted in the world as the first message.

"The fall of Babylon is not the loss of temporal power by the papacy, nor the destruction of the city of Rome. For the papacy does not lose her temporal power because she made the nations drink of her false doctrines; but that is the very means by which she obtained and so long held it. And it cannot mean the destruction of Rome; for Babylon is where the people of God are largely represented. Rev. 18:9. But this has never been true of Rome, and especially it was not when the second message of Rev. 14 was given. And, secondly, it is after Babylon's fall that the people of God are called out, which would be an absurdity if applied to the fall and burning of Rome. And, thirdly, after the fall, Babylon fills up with hateful birds and foul spirits, which makes the application to the destruction of Rome still more ridiculous.

"The fall of Babylon is a moral fall, as is shown by Rev. 18:1-3. But the proclamation of this fall being connected with the great Advent movement of our own days, it must apply to some portion of Babylon which was at that time in a condition to experience a moral change for the worse. But this announcement, Babylon is fallen, could not then be said of the heathen world, which has for ages been lost in darkness and corruption; nor of the Romish church, for that has for generations been as low as it is possible for any organization, religious or secular, to descend. It must therefore have reference to those classes who have partially come out from Romish errors, but stopped short of receiving all the light that was offered them. This is true of the great mass of Protestant sects. They ran well for a season, and had a large measure of the graces of the Holy Spirit and the blessing of God to witness to what truth they were willing to receive. But their theology is still hideously deformed by enormous errors drawn from Rome, which they refuse to abandon. A reception of the first message would have healed their divisions and made a beginning of the work of correcting their errors. We know this from the effect it did have on those who received it, who came out of all these denominations. But they rejected the message and, shut it out of their houses. The cry was then raised, Babylon is fallen; and although the distinctive call of Rev. 18:4, 'Come out of her my people,' which we apply to the future, was not given, yet some 50,000 persons did come out of the theological bondage to which they were subjected, an earnest of a still greater separation to take place, as we believe in the near future, when Rev. 18:2 is more completely fulfilled in them, and the cry of verse 4 shall be given." Biblical Institute.

Since the fall of Babylon is a moral fall, as has been shown, it is natural to look for a change in the spiritual condition of those who are the subject of the announcement at the time when it is made. That such a change did come over the churches of our land about the time when we claim that the cry was given, that is, about the year 1844, we will let the religious press of our country testify.

The Christian Palladium for May 15, 1844, speaks in the following mournful strains: "In every direction we hear the dolorous sound, wafting upon every breeze of heaven, chilling as the blasts from the icebergs of the north—settling like an incubus on the breasts of the timid, and drinking up the energies of the weak; that lukewarmness, division, anarchy, and desolation are distressing the borders of Zion."

The Religious Telescope of 1844 uses the following language: "We have never witnessed such a general declension of religion as at the present. Truly the church should awake and search into the cause of this affliction; for an affliction every one that loves Zion must view it. When we call to mind how few and far between cases of true conversion are, and the almost unparalleled impenitence and hardness of sinners, we almost involuntarily exclaim, 'Has God forgotten to be gracious? or is the door of mercy closed?'"

About that time proclamations of fasts and seasons of prayer for the return of the Holy Spirit were sent out in the religious papers. Even the Philadelphia Sun of Nov. 11, 1844, has the following: "The undersigned ministers and members of various denominations in Philadelphia and vicinity, solemnly believing that the present signs of the times—the spiritual dearth in our churches generally, and the extreme evils in the world around us, seem to call loudly on all Christians for a special season of prayer, do, therefore, hereby agree by divine permission, to unite in a week of special prayer to Almighty God, for the outpouring of his Holy Spirit on our city, our country, and the world."

Prof. Finney, editor of the Oberlin Evangelist, Feb., 1844, says: "We have had the fact before our minds, that in general, the Protestant churches of our country, as such, are either apathetic or hostile to nearly all the moral reforms of the age. There are partial exceptions, yet not enough to render the fact otherwise than general. We have also another corroborated fact: the almost universal absence of revival influence in the churches. The spiritual apathy is almost all-pervading, and is fearfully deep: so the religious press of the whole land testifies. Very extensively, church members are becoming devotees of fashion—joining hands with the ungodly in parties of pleasure, in dancing, in festivities, etc. But we need not expand this painful subject. Suffice it that the evidence thickens and rolls heavily upon us, to show that the churches generally are becoming sadly degenerate. They have gone very far from the Lord, and he has withdrawn himself from them."

Apostasy is a gradual work. People do not descend from the heights of moral excellence to the lowest depths of sin and degradation by a single plunge. But when a certain point in declension is reached, it then becomes proper that their fall should be announced; and when the measure of their iniquity is full, it is time for the judgments of God to fall upon them. The Jews had persecuted the prophets and stoned those that were sent unto them; but when in addition to this they rejected Jesus, his mission and miracles, though they could not deny and disprove them, it was time for him to say, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate;" and to denounce the wrath which was soon to follow; and when in view of the clear evidences of the resurrection of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, they could proceed to persecute them as they had their Master, it was meet that wrath to the uttermost should come upon them.

So when the Protestant church, the third and last division of modern Babylon, (for there are three divisions, Roman, Greek, and Protestant.) in addition to all her former delinquencies and sins, virtually rejected Christ by despising the doctrine of his second advent at hand, it was the very time for her fall to be proclaimed; and when, after her fall, she becomes the habitation and hold of devils and foul spirits, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird, and "her sins have reached unto Heaven," it will be proper and right that her plagues shall "come in a day, death, and mourning, and famine," and that she be "utterly burned with fire." Rev. 18:2-8.

The preaching of the hour of God's judgment, and the coming of Christ at hand, though deemed a failure by the unbelieving, was a test of the love of the Church for her Lord. With nothing to meet the Scriptural evidences of his advent near, but her unscriptural theories, she rejected the glad tidings with scorn, thus evincing that she did not love his appearing. "But it might have been the means of healing her." Jer. 51:8. Had she received it, what a work would it have wrought for her! Her unscriptural hope of a temporal reign, her false view of the second advent, her unrighteous justification of oppression and wickedness, her pride and conformity to the world, would all have been swept away. Alas! that this warning from Heaven was rejected! Because she would not be healed, the Lord says, "Forsake her,"—"From such turn away." 2 Tim. 3:1-5.