The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

has gone forth, it must be 'cut off.' . . . The professing Church has long been unworthy of
the sacred name it bears. . . . Instead of being the instrument of spreading the truth of the
Gospel among men, it is the worst hindrance to their attaining that knowledge of God, and
of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, in which life eternal lies; like the Pharisees of old, it
stands as the great obstruction, neither entering itself into the Kingdom, nor suffering
those who would to enter in. . . . The church is confounded with the world, and the true
saints are strangers in its society; it is no longer the pillar and ground of the truth, it is the
hotbed of heresy, false doctrine, and corruption of every kind. . . . An end must come to all
this! Not only does the Word of God predict it, not only does our own sense of
righteousness demand it, but the solemn analogies of history distinctly intimate it. Let the
undeniable fact that past apostasies brought down the judgment they deserved, forewarn
men what must be the end of the existing apostasy of the professing people of God.
Babylon must fall! Great Babylon must come in remembrance before God, who will give
unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath, for her sins have reached unto
heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities! The testimony of the Apocalypse is full
and fearful as to the doom that is now impending over Christendom."
The above words were written in 1880, and were quoted by Mr. Russell in his monthly
journal in December of that year. A. J. Gordon in 1889 utters a no less solemn warning:
"Every age has ended in judgment, and so shall the present dispensation close. As apostate
Judaism met its doom in the destruction of Jerusalem, so apostate Christendom expiates its
sentence in the overthrow of mystical Babylon. This destruction will fall, we believe, [first]
upon the literal city of seven hills, as the visible center and capital of the apostasy. What
other systems beside the Papal may be involved in the judgment is a most solemn question
to be pondered. It is plainly intimated that the mother has daughters, and therefore that
Babylon the Great has outlying suburbs which are in fellowship with her. Let him that
readeth understand."
Mr. Lord looked for the fulfillment of this vision in the future of his day (1846). He saw
very clearly, as will be observed in the quotation below, the failure of the Reformation in
the formation of the Protestant sects, and that those who in any measure united with or
received support by the civil powers, were part and parcel of Babylon. In this connection
his words which we quote are very significant:
"The Protestant churches [sects] so far from going out of great Babylon, continued in her
community by still acting on her [the mother's] principles, arrogating the same dominion
over the laws of God, and uniting in the same manner with the civil powers in imposing
their creeds and rites on others, and persecuting dissentients. . . . The Protestant
nationalized churches, therefore, great as was the sum of her [the mother's] false doctrines
which they rejected, inasmuch as they thus imitated her, in an arrogation of the throne of
God, and elevation of their authority above His rights and will, still continued to belong to
great Babylon, and if they subsist at that time [the time of judgment described in the
vision], are to share in her fall."