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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

The Second Angel’s Message - The Fall of Babylon

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this time.

Lord, I want to thank you for the Sabbath and these holy hours that we're in.

And I want to thank you for this opportunity to connect as brothers and sisters wherever we are to be able to come and study together.

And Lord, I'm praying that Jesus Christ might be uplifted.

I'm praying that Lord, you would speak to us so personally, individually, that amidst all the words I will speak, that your voice might be heard.

Give us sensitive ears to hear Your Spirit.

We pray for this internet connection, that everything would go smoothly and well.

And Lord, we pray that Jesus might be glorified now.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 14.

We've been going through the first angel's message and I know that I didn't go into Daniel chapter 8 and chapter 9 to help you to understand the time of judgment and when that would begin, But friends, that is the doctrine that makes our church particular in that sense.

Because the 2, 300-day prophecy is the central pillar of our faith.

From That sprang out the Adventist church itself.

We were born out of the pages of scripture and of prophecy.

But now we are done with Revelation 14, 6 and 7, we're moving on to verse 8, the second angel's message.

Revelation chapter 14, verse 8, this is what the Bible says, And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Friends, you can go back and read Great Controversy, pages 381 to 384.

Or if you want to get a larger context, read Great Controversy by Ellen White, Chapter 21.

Really, if there is a book outside of the Bible that demands our attention at this time and the times that we're living in, it is the book Great Controversy.

I do want to encourage you all, if you've never read it, get through it.

And if you've read it before and you're like me, the first time you read it, it was difficult, there was a lot of historical figures, it didn't make sense, persevere and try again.

I think it was the third time, only the third time that I, when I read the book Great Controversy, finally I was able to finish the book.

But friends, it is a very important book, especially for our time.

But the Bible here says in the second angel's message announcing the fall of Babylon.

It's important to define this before we move forward.

Revelation chapter 17, we're going to start in verse 1.

Revelation 17 verse 1, the Bible says this, And there came 1 of the 7 angels, which had the 7 vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth on many waters.

And it says in verse 2, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Look at verse 5, and upon her forehead This whore, who we know is a bad church, was a name written, mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.

Friends, if you are a student of prophecy, If you've gone through the books of Daniel and Revelation, you will find that there are 2 great churches, 2 great women mentioned, especially in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 12, a woman clothed with the sun, standing on the moon, She's a pure woman.

This is God's people throughout all history.

And then we see here in Revelation 17, this harlot woman, she is none other than that bad church we've already discovered in Daniel chapter 7, representing the Roman Catholic Church.

Friends, if you're not aware of this you have to go back to study Daniel chapter 7 especially.

But the fall of Babylon in Revelation 14 when that second angel comes and says Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that cannot be referring only to the Roman Catholic Church.

Because the first angel's message only became relevant around 1844 and the Roman Catholic Church had fallen long before that in 1798.

But even the moral fall had taken place centuries before as well.

So this cannot be referring only to the Roman Catholic Church.

But if you look there in chapter 17 and verse 5 of Revelation, what we just read there, it said, mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of what?

Babylon has daughters that are just like her.

Babylon has daughters, other churches, that are just like her.

And I want you to consider this quote, taken from the pen of inspiration.

Many of the Protestant churches are following Rome's example of iniquitous connection with the kings of the earth, the state churches by their relation to secular governments, and other denominations by seeking the favor of the world.

And the term Babylon confusion may be appropriately applied to these bodies, all professing to derive their doctrines from the Bible, yet divided into almost innumerable sects with widely conflicting creeds and theories." That's from Great Controversy.

Spirit of Prophecy, Volume 4, page 232, paragraph 2.

The term Babylon, derived from Babel and signifying confusion, is applied in scripture to the various forms of false or apostate religion.

But the message announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to some religious body that was once pure and has become corrupt.

It cannot be the Romish Church, which is here meant.

For that church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries.

But how appropriate the figure as applied to who?

The Protestant churches, all professing to derive their doctrines from the Bible, yet divided into almost innumerable sects.

The unity for which Christ prayed does not exist.

Instead of 1 Lord, 1 faith, 1 baptism, there are numberless conflicting creeds and theories.

Religious faith appears so confused and discordant that the world know not what to believe as truth.

It is the work of man, the work of Satan.

This term Babylon, meaning confusion, is not only referring to the Roman Catholic Church, but it's referring to even all those Protestants that have held onto their traditions that have been passed down, really, from where?

So many churches and so many different beliefs, no 1 knows what to believe today.

And that truly is the characteristics of Babylon, my friends.

And so when we look at this term Babylon, it's not just referring to Roman Catholic Church.

It is here in a sense referring to the Protestant churches, especially when that cry was given around 1840, leading up to 1844.

Many people joined in, but many also did not.

But friends, look, what has led to the fall of Babylon?

How can we come to this point where we say, hey, these Protestant churches are Babylon.

Well, in order to understand this, we've got to go back to Daniel chapter 5.

Daniel chapter 5, where the actual fall, literal fall of Babylon took place.

Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines might drink therein.

So they brought those golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem, and the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, drank in them.

They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote." So we see here King Belshazzar is then the current king of Babylon.

And he commands all those, the vessels that have been taken out of the temple of God, those holy vessels to be brought out so that they could pour their wine in it and drink from it.

It was at that very point that the bloodless hand came forth and wrote against the wall where they were drinking.

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The Second Angel’s Message - The Fall of Babylon

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