everlasting-gospels.gif Refining The Second Angel's Mesage-2
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April 17

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And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice,saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Rev. 18:1, 2.

Once Sabbatarian Adventists had given up the teaching that the door of probation had been shuut, the way opened for another look at their understanding of the fall of Babylon.

The one important line of development in terms of the second angel's message was to conceive of the fall of Babylon as a two-phase or progressive corruption. Whereas Fitch had seen Revelation 14:8 and 18:1-4 as one event, James White and the Sabbatarians came to interpret those two texts as separate incidents.

White noted that the fall of Babylon described in 14:8 "is in the past" while that set forth in 18:1-4 is present and especially future. As he put it in 1859: "First she falls [14:8]; second, she becomes the habitation of devils, and 'the hold of every foul spirit,' etc.; third, God's people are called out of her; and fourth, hr plagues are poured out upon her."

Thus although the Sabbatarians believed that the religious world had made a serious mistake during the early 1840s in rejecting a biblical teaching related to the Second Advent and for persecuting people for holding that belief, that 1840s fall was only the beginning of confusion. Developments before the end of time would lead the churches into much more serious moral and doctrinal turmoil until God would have to finally give up on those hopelessly confused churches that chose to be part of Babylon.

Ellen White agreed with her husband's reinterpretation of the fall of Babylon as being progressive, but she eventually would advance beyond it. To her "the perfect fulfillment of Revelation 14:8 is yet future." As a result, "the great body of Christ's true followers are still" in churches outside of Adventism. Thus Babylon is confused but not totally fallen. Beyond that, the call to leave Babylon will not reach its full force until right before the Advent, when Babylon will have at last completed its ongoing fall. As a result, she claimed, the call to "come out of her, my people," of Revelation 18:1-4 will "constitute the final warning to be given to the inhabitants of the earth"(GC 389, 390, 604).

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Lord, not everyone believes just as I do. There may be good reasons for that. Help me today to cultivate an understanding heart that stands for the truth but is gentle with those who do not see things the way I do.
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