BABYLON A SYMBOL OF THE PROFESSED CHURCH UNITED TO THE WORLD

Babylon is the name of the symbolic harlot which was seen by John. A woman is the symbol of a church. Revelation 12. A harlot is the symbol of a corrupt church. Ezekiel 16. It is evident that the woman in Revelation 17 should be interpreted in the same manner as the one in chap. 12. As that symbol undoubtedly represents the true church, though spoken of as a woman and her seed, so the harlot and her daughters are doubtless the entire corrupt church. Revelation 18:5. We understand, therefore, that Babylon is not limited to a single ecclesiastical body, but that its very name renders it necessary that it should be composed of many.TMR 43.2

If the harlot to whom the kings of the earth have unlawfully united themselves, symbolizes only the church of Rome, it follows that many of the wicked powers of the earth are quite free from this sin. The Greek Church is the established church of Russia and Greece; the Lutheran Church is the established Church of Prussia, Holland, Sweden, Norway, and a part of the smaller German states; England has Episcopacy for her State religion; and other countries have their established religions, and zealously oppose dissenters. Babylon has made all the nations drunk with her wine; it can therefore symbolize nothing less than the universal worldly church.TMR 43.3

It will be seen, therefore, that we do not exclusively apply the prophecy respecting Babylon to any one of the corrupt bodies which have existed, or which now exist. In this great city of confusion, we understand that the corrupt Roman and Greek churches occupy a large space, and act an important part. War, oppression, conformity to the world, and the like, identify with sad and faithful accuracy the great body of the Protestant churches as an important constituent part of this great Babylon.TMR 44.1

When the papal church possessed the power, it destroyed a vast multitude of the saints of God. Nor has the Protestant Church, since its rise, been free from acts of persecution whenever it has possessed the power to perform them. The Protestants of Geneva, with John Calvin at their head, burned Michael Servetus, a man who had barely escaped the same fate at the hands of the popish inquisition. They did this for the same reason that the papists do the like; that is, they did it for a difference of opinion, and because they had the power to do it. Witness also the long-continued oppression which the Church of England was able to maintain toward all dissenters. Even the puritan fathers of New England, themselves fugitives from the wicked oppression of the Church of England, could not forbear to hang the Quakers, and to whip and imprison the Baptists. In all these cases the civil arm was under the control of these professed worshipers of Jehovah, and they could not forbear to use it.TMR 44.2

The Protestant Church, till within a short time, held many thousand slaves; nor is the fact to be disguised that the professed church was the right arm of the slave power. Nor was slavery abolished by the churches. To the secular power falls the honor of overthrowing this gigantic evil; and the churches have never confessed their great wrong in so long upholding this iniquitous system. This great fact identifies the Protestant Church as a part of Babylon, with absolute certainty. Revelation 18:13. The celebrated Albert Barnes, whose notes on the New Testament are so widely diffused, uses the following startling language:TMR 45.1

“There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.” “The churches are the bulwark of American slavery.”TMR 45.2

Christ forbade his people to lay up treasures on earth (Matthew 6:19); but the professed church at the present day, as a body, exhibits greater eagerness in the pursuit of wealth, and in the acquisition of Babylonish treasures (Revelation 18:11-14), than even worldlings themselves. In exposing the corruption of the Babylonish church of his time, Christ warned his own people to beware of the like abominations. “But be not ye called Rabbi,” says Christ; that is, master, or doctor; “for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.” Matthew 23:8. Apparently to imitate the Romish Church, Protestants call their ministers Reverend. This word, which is used only once in the Scriptures, is there applied to God. Psalm 111:9. If it is a sin for the church to call her ministers Rabbi, or master, how much greater sin must it be for her to apply to them the title of Reverend, which belongs to God alone! Not content with this, some of these professed servants of Jesus Christ become Right Reverend, and Very Reverend. And not a few of them become Doctors of Divinity, so great is their proficiency in the doctrines of Christ!TMR 45.3

The New Testament speaks in the most decisive manner respecting plainness of dress; but the majority of the professed church at the present time walk in all the fashionable follies of life. They are arrayed in all the gaudy attire of Babylonian merchandise. The merchants of Babylon are the great men of the earth. In the fold of the nominal church is to be found a large portion of the lawyers, doctors, politicians, and great men of the world. To succeed in business, to become honorable in society, or to rise to high offices in the nation, it is important to make a profession of religion, and to have a good and regular standing in the church. This is most abominable in the sight of God; and yet it is very apparent that the church joyfully welcomes such members, because they will make the body more honorable.TMR 46.1

It may be said that even corrupt Protestants should not be joined with Romanists, as forming the great city of Babylon; for although Romanists claim infallibility, Protestants never yet have done this. We answer that in this the difference exists only in name. To speak in the language of their several pretensions, Romanists never can err; Protestants never do err. If Romanists claim infallibility in advance for the decrees and ordinances of their church, it is also true that Protestant bodies never afterward acknowledge wherein their churches or their councils have been in error. So that Protestant churches have all the advantage of infallibility, and leave to the Romanists all the odium of claiming it.TMR 46.2

Babylon is represented as trafficking in the souls of men. Look at the Church of England. There the vacant parishes are in some cases even set up for sale, and the highest bidder becomes the possessor of its revenue and the pastor of its people! To come nearer home, let us look at the various religious denominations in every place where they have sufficient wealth and strength to become popular. They must erect a splendid house of worship and furnish it in the most expensive style; and the members of the church must dress in all the fashion and pride of life. Then they must have an eloquent man to preach smooth things to fashionable ears. The church which can outdo the others in these particulars will succeed in securing the fashionable sinners of the place as permanent members of the congregation.TMR 47.1

The word Babylon. as we have seen, signifies confusion, and comes from Babel, the place where men, in their impious attempt to build a tower that should reach unto heaven, had their language confounded. Genesis 11. The church should be a unit. This was the will of Christ. Witness his intercession with the Father, as recorded in John 17. He prayed that his disciples might be one, as he and his Father are one; for this would cause the world to believe in Christ. Since the great apostasy, the majority of the professed followers have busied themselves in attempting to climb up to heaven some other way. They have been confounded in the attempt, and scattered abroad upon the face of the earth, with creeds as discordant as the languages of those who were dispersed at the ancient tower. The Holy Spirit uses the word Babylon on account of its signification, and it is a most appropriate designation for the great city of confusion to which it is applied.TMR 47.2

The church was represented as a chaste virgin, espoused to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:2. She became a harlot by seeking the friendship of the world. James 4:4. It was this unlawful connection with the kings of the earth that constituted her the great harlot of the Apocalypse. Revelation 17. The Jewish Church, represented as espoused to the Lord (Jeremiah 2; 3; 31:32), became a harlot in the same manner. Ezekiel 16. Even the term Sodom, which in Revelation 11 is applied to “the great city,” is in Isaiah 1 applied to the Jewish Church thus apostatized from God. The fact that Babylon is distinct from, though unlawfully united with, the kings of the earth, is positive proof that Babylon is not the civil power. The fact that the people of God are in her midst just before her overthrow, proves that she is a professedly religious body. We think it must be apparent, that the Babylon of Revelation 17 symbolizes the professed church unlawfully united to the world.TMR 48.1