I have so much to share with you this morning that I don’t know how I’m going to get it all in, but I’ll do my best. Let’s pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to teach us, that way we’ll surely get what we need.

There’s a question today that needs answering; in fact, it’s a question I had to ask myself over 20 years ago, but just because I received an answer to this question back then does not mean that everyone else has had this question answered to their own satisfaction. With the title I’ve given to this sermon you might think I’ll be talking about the human nature of Christ, which was fallen by the way, but that’s not what I’m talking about this morning.

This morning I’ve chosen another subject that you may never have thought about before, or if you have you might not know the answer, and yet it’s important, and I don’t doubt that some of you will be surprised and even shocked by the conclusions we come to this morning. Today I want to study about the difference between the terms Babylon and Babylon fallen, and what the characteristics of each are so we can make a determination about any church that may fit either one of these two categories.

It’s important to note that a church can be reclaimed out of Babylon; reformation is possible when a church has been taken captive, but when God determines that a church has fallen while in that state, it has then been weighed in the balances and found wanting and no more can be done for that church; its probation has closed as a body but not necessarily for individuals within that body, that’s why Revelation 18:4 says, “Come out of her My people.” God has a people in fallen Babylon and they must be warned else they will partake of her sins and receive of her plagues. And so, once fallen, a church can never again be reformed or occupy the position it once had, and we’ll see that that’s true as we go along.

You’ve probably read the statements from the Spirit of Prophecy that define what constitutes Babylon: the false Sabbath; false or apostate religion; religious bodies that were once pure but have become corrupt; the immortality of the soul and kindred heresies; the rejection of the truth, and so forth, but that does not necessarily mean that a church that fits into any one of these categories is Babylon fallen. It can be, but not necessarily so.

I would like to read to you what the Seventh-day Adventist church wrote about this subject over a hundred years ago, because I believe they had it right back then. The following article is taken from the Sabbath School Quarterly, Lesson 9, February 29, 1896, pages 33-34, and listen carefully and you’ll notice the difference between churches that are designated as Babylon and those that would be Babylon fallen. And notice also that this was many years before Ellen White died, so it does carry a good bit of credibility.

“When the early church departed from God and imbibed pagan errors, she became Babylon. When she united with the state, she fell, and, as an organization, was the body of Christ no longer.”

[Now let me stop right here before I read on. According to what we just read, when a church begins imbibing or accepting pagan errors they become Babylon, why? Because they’re confused, they are mixing truth and error, and that’s what the term Babylon signifies. But when they unite with the state, and that’s normally for the purpose of persecuting dissenters, they become Babylon fallen, and then others are chosen to carry on the work]

“While the Reformation churches held fast to the word, Christ was with them. Then they crystallized their various errors into creeds and endeavored thus to confine God’s word, they made themselves daughters of Babylon. When some of them united with the state, they fell [there it is again], and God had to use other people, called out of Babylon to carry forward His work. Now among these very churches which came out of the second Babylon, confusion reigns; and now great Babylon [that would be the papacy], including later daughters [the Protestant Sunday churches], is in adulterous union with the kings of earth [that would be the civil powers], and is endeavoring to make that union stronger. God calls no church Babylon which holds to His word, and follows the light that shines from it, even though there are in its membership many who do not know Christ. When the controlling influence of a church is downward, it erects some other standard besides God’s word.”

[So, if heresies arise in a church, this alone does not constitute a fallen church and the call is not yet made to come out of her. God is reasonable, He gives time for Reformation to take place; for errors to be corrected, and if that fails to bring them back to obedience to God’s word, but instead that church unites with the state, then it’s time for a call out message to go to that church, because reformation of that body is no longer possible. When a church unites with the state and begins persecuting people that disagree with it, that church has crossed a line that God has drawn in the sand, and He will punish all within that body if they don’t come out when the call comes to them]

“It has ever been true that a backslidden body, one that has turned from God’s word to men, from God’s power to the state, was never reformed in itself. [In other words, a church that has gone that far is done for; it will never recover; it’s been given every opportunity to reform but has failed to do so] Invariably God’s message has called out those from the fallen church who would do His will and preach His gospel. Israel went down to Egypt for help, and their captivity and loss of power followed. Out of the captives God gathered a faithful band to do His work. The Jewish church failed, and God called out the apostolic church to do His bidding. The Roman Church failed, and out of it God called the churches of the Reformation. Some of these churches failed to advance, and God called out others to bear His gospel to the world such as the Baptist, Methodist, Congregationalist, Disciple, Adventists. His last called-out people will know no standard but His word, no power but His Spirit.” And I say, amen to that, don’t you?

Now, what I just read to you does not come from the prophet, but it’s true nonetheless. The principle we want to get from this reading is that a church does not become Babylon fallen until it unites with the state, and when that happens those within that church who want to stay true to the Bible will suffer persecution because of this church state union; this is always the way it works. This is what happened at every stage of the church in the past, and this same principle will continue to be worked out.

So, a church that is imbibing pagan errors is Babylon. A church that has turned from God’s word is Babylon. A church that erects a standard to confine God’s word, such as a church manual or a book of fundamental beliefs as a test of fellowship, is Babylon; and a church that does not hold to the word of God and does not follow the light that shines from it, is Babylon. That’s what Adventists believed in the early days, and they put it down in writing so none would be deceived.

But please notice, these churches that are called Babylon can be reformed; they have not yet gone too far to be brought back. But you will also note that when a church turns to the state, it falls; that is Babylon fallen and is the final stage of an apostate body from which there is no recovery. Once a church falls, it only continues to fall, and will never again be lifted out of the pit into which it has fallen. One wrong step leads to another until it is midnight in the soul of that church.

In fact, this same principle even holds true for individuals that have sinned and continue to sin. Eventually, if they don’t stop, they will commit the unpardonable sin, and once that point is reached, that individual has sealed their doom; and this same principle applies to whole churches as well.

Now, you might question the statement I made about churches that erect a standard besides the word of God, such as a church manual or a book of fundamental beliefs as a test of fellowship becoming Babylon, but it’s true. If you go back to the early days of the Seventh-day Adventist church and read there statement of fundamental beliefs and compare it with what the church teaches today, you will find major differences as the church has evolved over the years, but does God’s word change? Absolutely not! When human beings try to confine God’s word by writing out a creed and tells people this is what we believe and you have to agree with it in order to become a member, then that church has made a great mistake.

And let me just say this, there’s nothing wrong with having a brief statement of beliefs, but when those beliefs become the standard of the church and is accepted as such by those that join, that’s when it becomes a problem. Our creed must be everything between the two covers of the Bible, because that is inspired and unchangeable, whereas a statement of fundamental beliefs always seems to change over time as manmade ideas seek to clarify those beliefs. That’s why Sister White said, “The Bible, and the Bible alone, is to be our creed, the sole bond of union.” You can read that in Selected Messages, Book 1, page 416.

Now back to the principle of Babylon fallen being a union of church and state. We need to realize that a church that turns to the state to defend itself has committed fornication with the kings of the earth, as stated in Revelation 18:3, because when they do that, it’s a denial of faith in God; a denial of the faith of Jesus to handle their spiritual problems for them. Why, if a church truly has God’s power, would it ever turn to the state to defend itself? Is God so small that He can’t defend a church that’s obedient to His word? I think not, and there’s plenty of evidence to support that.

You see, whenever a church falls, it is a moral fall, because they are violating the moral law; they are transgressing the Ten Commandments in some point, and like James says, if you break one you’re guilty of breaking all, and many times churches that do that will go to the state, or to the kings of the earth to help them sustain their position.

If a church wants to maintain its power and control over the people, there’s no place to go but to the state once they reject God’s word. That is the progression of things as they have always gone all through the history of the church. That’s why the Sunday churches united with the state to push the Blair amendment back in the late 1800s as an example. And the Blair amendment, for those of you who don’t know, was an effort by Senator Blair to enact a Sunday law, but it was defeated when A. T. Jones spoke before the Senate and argued against it. However, we know the next time it comes up it will pass, but that’s another subject we don’t have time to get into today.

So, we should be able to understand from what we’ve discussed so far what constitutes Babylon fallen versus Babylon unfallen. One can be reformed and the other must have a call out message given to it; and the one that has not yet fallen will soon fall if it continues on in a false path.

If you remember reading about Adventist church history, you’ll recall that a righteousness by faith message was proclaimed in 1888 by two men named Jones and Waggoner. Most Adventists are familiar with some of the story and the names of these two men, but most probably don’t really know what they taught. The righteousness by faith message they gave was called the third angel’s message by Ellen White, and she said if the church as a body would have accepted it, Jesus would have come for His church within a very few short years. But here we are, over 120 years later and the General Conference claims today to be basking in the glory of the 1888 message and everything is going just fine. But if this is the case, then either Ellen White was a false prophet or those proclaiming to be basking in its glory are wrong. And no way do I believe Ellen White to be a false prophet.

By the way, in 1901 A. G. Daniells became General Conference president, and in 1926 he wrote a book call Christ Our Righteousness in which he states that the message Jones and Waggoner gave had never been accepted by the church up to that time. So has it been accepted since 1926? Obviously not. How do we know? We’re still here. It’s just that simple.

We know that Revelation 17 describes a union of church and state by a woman riding a beast; a woman in prophecy representing a church and a beast representing a Kingdom of some sort, and in Revelation 18 Babylon is also represented as sleeping with the Kings of the earth, which is also a church state union. And when this union takes place, the very next thing to happen is a call to come out of her my people; you can read that it in Revelation 18:3, 4. When a call out message comes, that means that that church is left desolate of God’s presence and that she has unchurched herself. That’s what Jesus said about the Jewish church when He walked out of the temple for the last time. Now let us see what the Spirit of Prophecy says about an apostate church being unchurched, which is essentially the same thing as Babylon becoming Babylon fallen.

In Manuscript Releases, Volume 12, page 388 it says, “Virtually Caiaphas was no high priest. He wore the priestly robes, but he had no vital connection with God. He was uncircumcised in heart. With the other priests he instructed the people to choose Barabbas instead of Christ. They cried out for the crucifixion of Christ and, as representatives of the Jewish nation, placed themselves under the Roman jurisdiction, which they despised, by saying, We have no king but Caesar. When they said this, they unchurched themselves.” In other words, that was it! They became a fallen church.

By the way, it’s very clear that the fallen Jewish church became a part of Mystery Babylon the Great, because Revelation 18:6 says, “And in her [that is Babylon] was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” Was the Jewish church responsible for the blood of prophets and the saints of God? Absolutely! That means that the Jewish church is also categorized with the rest of fallen Babylon, and Testimonies for the Church, volume 8, page 67 says, “Jerusalem is a representation of what the church will be if it refuses to walk in the light that God has given.” There’s much more that could be said about this, but you can study it out for yourself.

So, when the Jewish church declared it had no king but Caesar, it was no longer God’s church, she committed fornication with the kings of the earth and many of those that were members of the Jewish synagogue came out, and the apostolic church was formed. This is always the order of things that indicate when a church becomes a fallen church.

In the book Last Day Events, page 59 it says, “In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church is to be weighed. She will be judged by the privileges and advantages that she has had. If her spiritual experience does not correspond to the advantages that Christ, at infinite cost, has bestowed on her, if the blessings conferred have not qualified her to do the work entrusted to her, on her will be pronounced the sentence: ‘Found wanting.’ By the light bestowed, the opportunities given, will she be judged.”

“Found wanting”: these are very significant words and full of meaning. And keep in mind that ancient Babylon was a union of pagan religion backed by the state. In Daniel chapter 5 it speaks of the night Babylon was found wanting, and that very night it was found to be Babylon fallen, wasn’t it? And another power took over. However, we don’t ever want to be found calling a church Babylon or Babylon fallen when it’s being obedient to God’s word, because if we do, then we are weighing that church with human scales, which is not a fair weight.

Now let me be clear. Never do we have the authority to say that a church is Babylon by weighing it with human scales. We can’t just proclaim a church Babylon simply because we may think it is or because we’ve had a bad experience with it or something of that nature. But when we weigh it in the scales of the sanctuary; which are the true scales, the sanctuary being like a word picture of the whole gospel, or the whole plan of salvation, then we have the authority to call a church Babylon if it does not teach all the truths the sanctuary contains. In the most holy place of the sanctuary was the ark containing the Ten Commandments, the royal law by which everything is judged. The sanctuary is all encompassing! All the truths of the Bible are contained in it and it’s the main support for all other pillars. If that pillar gets knocked out the whole structure collapses. That’s why the sanctuary doctrine is the central pillar of our faith. That’s why if a church does not fit in with the gospel as it’s presented in the sanctuary, it’s not a true church, and if it’s not a true church, then it’s Babylon, because it has a confusion of ideas about the gospel, about how to be saved.

For instance, if a church teaches that a person can be in a saved condition while violating the law of God, which is in the most sacred apartment of the sanctuary, the very foundation of God’s government, and the reason for which Jesus shed His blood, can that church be God’s church? Absolutely not! If a church is teaching such error, they’re not being weighed in human scales, but in the scales of the sanctuary, and if that’s so, then we have every right to agree with what those scales reveal. If a church is imbibing pagan errors, it’s Babylon, and if it’s gone to the state to help it enforce those errors, then it’s Babylon fallen.

Now let me quote you an inspired statement that is misquoted a lot in order to discourage people from calling the Seventh-day Adventist Church Babylon or Babylon fallen. This is taken from Selected Messages, Volume 3, pages 17, 18.

“I tell you, my brethren, the Lord has an organized body through whom He will work. . . . When anyone is drawing apart from the organized body of God’s commandment-keeping people, when he begins to weigh the church in his human scales and begins to pronounce judgment against them, then you may know that God is not leading him. He is on the wrong track.”

Now, as we have seen, there’s a big difference in the type of scales we use to come to the truth about a church. We have the Balances of the sanctuary, and we have human scales. We are not to call a church Babylon or Babylon fallen if it is not shown to be such by the word of God contained in the truths of the sanctuary. We can not base it on our opinion, because that would be weighing it with human scales. It must be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary; then and only then can it be found wanting, or in other words Babylon fallen, and the way ancient Babylon fell is a good example of how Babylon falls today. God gave Babylon ample time to reform, but when it reached a certain point in their religio-political system, it was weighed in the balances and found to be deficient and it was allowed to fall.

Now let me ask you, what commandment does a church and state union violate? How about the first commandment? “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Doesn’t a church state union show a total lack of faith in God to fix problems in the church? If that isn’t having another power than the power of God in the church, I don’t know what is. If a church goes to the state, doesn’t that also violate the second commandment by creating an idol out of the civil power? Because anything you put first in your life, other than God, is an idol, isn’t it? And what about number three? Wouldn’t a church that unites with the state be taking God’s name in vain, claiming to be a Christian church with Christ at the head when it’s chosen the state to take His place? And what about number four? How does a church state union violate that one? Listen to this statement from Manuscript Releases, Volume 12, page 218.

“When religion is mixed with civil government, it means much to Seventh-day Adventists. A union of church and state means a recognition of a spurious sabbath, and a failure to respect the conscientious observance of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.”

Now that’s an interesting statement, is it not? It begs the question, can a Sabbath keeping church that has united with the state to persecute its own people be paving the way for a Sunday law, even though it keeps it outwardly? Interesting to consider, isn’t it? Could that be why the Review and Herald, March 18, 1884 says the following?

“The Lord has a controversy with His professed people [who would that be, if not Seventh-day Adventists?] in these last days. In this controversy men in responsible positions [church leaders] will take a course directly opposite to that pursued by Nehemiah. [Nehemiah was a Sabbath reformer, wasn’t he? But these church leaders do the opposite] They will not only ignore and despise the Sabbath themselves, but they will try to keep it from others by burying it beneath the rubbish of custom and tradition. In churches and in large gatherings in the open air, [sounds like campmeetings] ministers will urge upon the people the necessity of keeping the first day of the week.”

And here’s another point to consider. Isn’t the Sabbath more than a rest from our physical labor? Doesn’t the Sabbath also include a spiritual rest, and isn’t spiritual rest complete trust in God? How can a church have complete trust in God and go to the state to defend itself? It can’t! And in that way they are violating the spirituality of the law even though they may keep it outwardly.

Now, before moving on I would ask you to consider two things. Do Christians bring those they believe to be in error before the courts? Or do those who are in error bring Christians before the courts? That shouldn’t be too hard to answer. Satan is the one who uses force, isn’t he? God doesn’t use force; He gives us free will. I know of several Adventists that I disagree with on certain issues, but do I take them to court and sue them over it? Of course not. And yet this is exactly what the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists have done over and over again in recent years.

Notice what the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:1-7, “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another.”

Paul is very clear here, isn’t he? Those who take their brethren to court are doing that which is unrighteous, and they shall not inherit the kingdom of God, it goes on to say.

Notice also what it says in the Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald, January 10, 1893. “The spirit that instigates accusation and condemnation in the church which results in uprooting those that are looked upon as evil-doers, has manifested itself in seeking to correct wrongs through the civil power. This is Satan’s own method for bringing the world under his dominion; but the Lord Jesus Christ has given us no such example for thus dealing with the erring. God has been misrepresented through the church by this very way of dealing with heretics; he has been represented as the one who empowered the church to do these wicked things. Those who have differed from the established doctrines have been imprisoned, put to torture and to death, because the dignitaries of the church could not endure those who dissented from ideas which these leaders deemed to be true. . . Fiendish zeal has been manifested in excluding dissenters from the fellowship of the church, and passing upon them the sentence of excommunication by which the Roman Church asserted its power of excluding them from all possibility of entering heaven. How does heaven look upon such things? With what amazement do angels hear men judging and condemning their brethren, causing them most cruel suffering of body and mind, and claiming that they do it under the sanction of God? Instead of being under the leadership of Christ, they are following the leadership of Satan. . . All persecution, all force employed to compel conscience, is after Satan’s own order; and those who carry out these designs are his agents to execute his hellish purpose. In following Satan’s cruel proposals, in becoming his agents, men become the enemies of God and his church, and will be judged in that great day by that man whom God hath ordained; for he hath committed all judgment into the hands of his Son.”

Actually the Spirit of Prophecy has a lot more to say about this, but you can read it yourself from Selected Messages, volume 3 beginning with page 299.

But here’s the question for you if you are a Seventh-day Adventist. Has the General Conference united with the state? Has it turned from God’s power to the State? Has it committed fornication with the Kings of the earth? Has it sat upon a beast? Has it employed the state to seek to correct so-called heretics? Has it not only become Babylon because of preaching and teaching doctrines of confusion, but has it become Babylon fallen because it has gone to the State to persecute its own brethren? If it has, then there should be no question as to whether or not we should come out of her.

The Great Controversy, page 443 says, “Whenever the church has obtained secular power, she has employed it to punish dissent from her doctrines. Protestant churches that have followed in the steps of Rome by forming alliance with worldly powers have manifested a similar desire to restrict liberty of conscience.”

Please notice that when the church employs the secular power to punish dissent from her teachings, she is following in the steps of apostate Protestantism and Rome prior to that. In other words the church will come after you by using the civil power to stop you if you don’t agree with what they say and what they have decreed. So in order to become Babylon fallen, a church would have to employ the State to punish those that speak out against what they believe to be error.

Now most Adventists are aware that the United States is the second beast mentioned in Revelation 13. They are also aware that it’s the United States that will form an image to the first beast, which was the Roman power through the dark ages, and just like the Roman power, this image will consist of a Church State union. The image is not Rome, because Rome cannot be an image to itself, but another power that acts the same way. Any church that unites with the state to persecute those that refuse to follow what she says, becomes connected to, and a part of, that image, and is therefore no better.

The Great Controversy, pages 383, 384 says, “Babylon is said to be the mother of harlots. By her daughters must be symbolized churches that cling to her doctrines and traditions, and follow her example of sacrificing the truth and the approval of God, in order to form an unlawful alliance with the world. The message of Revelation 14 announcing the fall of Babylon, must apply to religious bodies that were once pure and have become corrupt. Since this message follows the warning of the Judgment, it must be given in the last days, therefore it cannot refer to the Romish church. For that church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries. Furthermore, in the eighteenth chapter of the Revelation, in a message which is yet future, the people of God are called upon to come out of Babylon.”

Now please pardon me for doing so much reading, but I need to read another paragraph from The Great Controversy, because it will help clarify an important point.

This will be taken from page 389, and please listen carefully, “The second angel’s message of Revelation 14 was first preached in the summer of 1844, and it then had a more direct application to the churches of the United States, where the warning of the judgment had been most widely proclaimed and most generally rejected, and where the declension in the churches had been most rapid. But the message of the second angel did not reach its complete fulfillment in 1844. The churches then experienced a moral fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent message; but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to reject the special truths for this time they have fallen lower and lower. Not yet, however, can it be said that ‘Babylon is fallen, . . . because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ She has not yet made all nations do this. The spirit of world conforming and indifference to the testing truths for our time exists and has been gaining ground in churches of the Protestant faith in all the countries of Christendom; and these churches are included in the solemn and terrible denunciation of the second angel. But the work of apostasy has not yet reached its culmination.”

So, if the fall is not yet complete, when will the fall of the Protestant churches be complete? It will be complete when the leading Sunday churches “shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions.” You can read that in The Great Controversy, page 445. Here again, it takes a union of church and state to complete the process.

But here’s the real shocker, and you better put on your seatbelt for this one. This process has already been completed in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and in this respect has completed her fall even before the Protestant Sunday churches have completed theirs. In 1980 the General Conference trademarked the name Seventh-day Adventist, and with the help of the state began to persecute other Seventh-day Adventists who dared to expose apostasy in the church while calling themselves Seventh-day Adventists, and using God’s sacred tithe to pay a Catholic lawyer to do it. And since that time there has been a concerted effort by church leaders to join with the civil powers to totally extinguish any group or individual, calling themselves Seventh-day Adventists, that dare to speak out about what has clearly become apostasy from the truth.

As we read earlier, when the Jewish people, under the instruction of the priests, chose Barabbas instead of Christ, they placed themselves under Roman jurisdiction saying, “We have no king but Caesar”, and with that declaration they unchurched themselves, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church has done the same thing by uniting with the civil power to persecute those that love God and keep His commandments.

The trademark name issue has been used against many groups over the past 35 years. Just get on the Internet and check it out and you’ll find all the information you could possibly want about groups they’ve persecuted in the past and are persecuting right now.

The first time the trademark went through the courts was because of a problem with a homosexual group called the SDA Kinship group, which still continues on as a group using the name.

To make a long story short, the General Conference found that the Kinship group was misrepresenting the name Seventh-day Adventist and sought to eliminate this erring group by using the civil power. It came before the courts, and guess what? the General Conference lost the case to the homosexual group. Well, you might say, the church had to do something about it. They couldn’t just allow this group that was clearly in violation of the plain word of God to continue unopposed, and I would agree, but they should not have taken the route they did.

Remember what King Ahaziah did when he wanted to know what to do when he was faced with a crisis situation? He did the same thing the General Conference did. Rather than asking God what to do by going to the writings of God’s prophet, he sent a messenger to inquire of a heathen god, but in 1 Kings 1:3 it says, “The angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?”

Today we would say, “Is it not because there is no God in spiritual Israel that the Seventh-day Adventist Church went to enquire at a worldly court and lost the case to an abominable group of sodomites? And is it any wonder they lost? No! They lost because they went to the wrong place for resolution; they joined with the state in violation of a plain “Thus saith the Lord”, and then in their madness they went a step further and began suing those that were not violating the word of God.

Over a hundred years ago, because of sexual misbehavior by many of the ministers, Sister White said our churches were in danger of becoming a sister to fallen Babylon, and because the existing evil wasn’t dealt with properly at the time, is it any wonder that the current situation over the name started with a group that was sexually misbehaving? I find that quite ironic. Becoming a sister to fallen Babylon was the prediction that was made should sexual sins not be faithfully dealt with, and it has now come to pass. You can read all about this in Manuscript Releases, Volume 21, beginning with page 378 if you want to take the time.

We read earlier that when the Jews chose Caesar as their king rather than God, that’s when they unchurched themselves; that’s when the Jewish church fell, but only after many years of entreaty by the Holy Spirit. And the General Conference, by making the United States court system their deliverer rather than God, did the same thing, but only after a long process of God trying to correct their errors through many years.

The trademark issue now has a long history of persecution. There are cases going on all over the world now. The woman has slept with the Kings of the earth and has become a cage of every unclean and hateful bird, and we are instructed to come out of her or become drunk with her wine. Problem is, most are already so drunk they don’t have much spiritual discernment left. Most will have to hear a very shocking message to wake them up and get them to study for themselves, and coming to the conclusion that the church is not just Babylon; but Babylon fallen is quite a shocking message, isn’t it?

In The Desire of Ages, pages 737, 738 it says, “By choosing a heathen ruler, the Jewish nation had withdrawn from the theocracy. They had rejected God as their king. Henceforth they had no deliverer. They had no king but Caesar. To this the priests and teachers had led the people. For this, with the fearful results that followed, they were responsible. A nations sin and a nations ruin were due to the religious leaders.”

Today we are seeing history repeated, friends, and sadly our former religious leaders had all this light, and yet they still couldn’t see where all this was leading. They didn’t put oil in their lamps; they didn’t anoint their eyes with eyesalve; they didn’t buy gold tried in the fire, and as a result the virgin has become a harlot; a sister of fallen Babylon.

And here’s an important point to keep in mind that many have missed in the past and that some are still missing today. Once a church has gone to the state to persecute its own people, the divine call is not to try to reform the church. Many have tried this route over the past many years, and what difference has it made? The church only continues to fall farther and farther from the truth, and inspiration says it will only continue to do so.

In the context of the alpha and omega of apostasy, which the prophet said would develop within the church, notice this next statement from Special Testimonies, Series B, Volume 7, page 57, “One thing it is certain is soon to be realized,—the great apostasy, which is developing and increasing and waxing stronger, and will continue to do so until the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout.”

That means it’s not going to get any better! God is not going to clean up the church by getting rid of all the tares! Rather, the wheat must untangle themselves from the tares by heeding the call out message and leave the field, which represents the church according to Christ’s Object Lessons, page 70, or they’re going to burn up.

The alpha of apostasy began with Doctor Kellogg when Ellen White was still alive, and she said the omega, or the final outcome of what Kellogg started, would be of a most startling nature. Now, we don’t have time this morning to go into a deep study about what the omega apostasy is and how it has developed in the church, but it’s already here friends, it has been for a long time. It has to do with pantheism, and pantheism is the belief that God is in everything, even the sinner. But Sister White said it’s not God that abides in the sinner, it’s the enemy who abides there.

In a nutshell the omega apostasy is the belief that you can go on in sin and still be in a saved condition even while you’re doing it. This has been taught by various leaders in the church in a variety of ways for at least 50 years now, and don’t you think this would be of a most startling nature to those that studied and prayed, sometimes all through the night, when the foundation pillars of Adventism were being laid? Yet today this is being taught, and most are so blinded to the truth by their religious leaders that they can’t see the harm in it. It’s very akin to the doctrine of the rest of apostate Protestantism who are teaching once saved always saved, and the unfallen human nature of Christ as their main doctrines.

This false teaching by the church is the main reason why many have stood up against it and have been disfellowshiped, and also the reason why the church has gone to the state to stop them. Don’t think that it’s just over the name, it’s much more than that. It’s the difference between the true gospel and another gospel; a true Jesus and another Jesus; the true Spirit and another spirit, and it’s the main reason why the great controversy between Christ and Satan has been going on now for 6000 years.

Oh, so much more could be said, but we’re out of time. Let me read you one more statement that tells us clearly about what we see happening within Adventism and what it’s all about. It’s really not complicated.

The Great Controversy, page 582, “From the very beginning of the great controversy in heaven it has been Satan’s purpose to overthrow the law of God. [And don’t think that this is not also his purpose for Seventh-day Adventists] It was to accomplish this that he entered upon his rebellion against the Creator, and though he was cast out of heaven he has continued the same warfare upon the earth. To deceive men, and thus lead them to transgress God’s law, is the object which he has steadfastly pursued. . . The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God. Upon this battle we are now entering—a battle between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition.”

So there you have it. Now what do we do about it? Are you still hoping and praying that the church will turn back to the counsels of the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy and give the final message to the world? If you are, you will be disappointed, because that time will never come.

Let me read it to you from the Review and Herald, March 22, 1887, “The old standard-bearers knew what it was to wrestle with God in prayer, and to enjoy the out-pouring of his Spirit. But these are passing off from the stage of action; and who are coming up to fill their places? How is it with the rising generation? are they converted to God? Are we awake to the work that is going on in the heavenly Sanctuary, or are we waiting for some compelling power to come upon the church before we shall arouse? Are we hoping to see the whole church revived? That time will never come.”

You know, I really don’t enjoy having to read these kind of statements to you. It makes me very sad to understand what could have been, but I give it because it’s the truth, and because I’m reminded of what it says in Testimonies For The Church, Volume 3, page 321, “In this fearful time, just before Christ is to come the second time, God’s faithful preachers will have to bear a still more pointed testimony than was borne by John the Baptist. A responsible, important work is before them; and those who speak smooth things, God will not acknowledge as His shepherds. A fearful woe is upon them.”

I don’t want that fearful woe upon me, and believe me, I know by experience what accepting this message may mean to you. It may mean leaving the church you grew up in. It may mean worshiping all alone or with a very small group. It may mean estrangement from family members. It may mean finding another place to return your tithe and offerings. It may mean being exposed to anger and a multitude of fanatical ideas as you search for the place God would have you to be. But if it’s any comfort to you, you won’t be experiencing anything different than many others before you experienced all through history. And I’ve kept you long enough so I’ll close with this last quote from Signs of the Times, May 4, 1882, and if it was true then, certainly it’s true today.

“The greatest want of this age is the want of men,—men who will not be bought or sold; men who are true and honest in their inmost souls; men who will not fear to call sin by its right name, and to condemn it, in themselves or in others; 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.”

May God give us the courage and the boldness to do what needs to be done, and to say what needs to be said, but in the most loving way possible. Would you pray for me that I might be able to do it with love for souls?

It means a great deal to me to know that there are those of you who are praying for Cindy and me to remain strong and focused on the present truth for this time; thank you, and please know that everyone of you are prayed for daily, that you will have the power to resist temptation and be faithful to the truth the Holy Spirit has revealed to you.

I know this is has been a strong message I’ve presented today, and I’ve preached lots of other sermons that have focused on more agreeable subjects like the simple gospel, the Love of God, character development, and the importance of knowing Jesus as a personal Saviour; but sometimes subjects like today have to be presented also to balance things out. Just knowing what I’ve presented today and even acting upon it will not save you without a total surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t want to be among those that will end up saying, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” [Jeremiah 8:20] The Spirit of Prophecy says that many Adventists will sing this bitter lamentation, and I pray it won’t be you.

Sermon available in PDF Fallen or Unfallen