The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 383

husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, saith
the Lord;” “as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers
instead of her husband!” Ezekiel 16:8, 13-15, 32; Jeremiah 3:20.
In the New Testament, language very similar is addressed to
professed Christians who seek the friendship of the world above the
favor of God. Says the apostle James: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
The woman (Babylon) of Revelation 17 is described as “arrayed
in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones
and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and
filthiness:...and upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon
the Great, the mother of harlots.” Says the prophet: “I saw the woman
drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs
of Jesus.” Babylon is further declared to be “that great city, which
reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17:4-6, 18. The power
that for so many centuries maintained despotic sway over the monarchs
of Christendom is Rome. The purple and scarlet color, the gold and
precious stones and pearls, vividly picture the magnificence and more
than kingly pomp affected by the haughty see of Rome. And no other
power could be so truly declared “drunken with the blood of the saints”
as that church which has so cruelly persecuted the followers of Christ.
Babylon is also charged with the sin of unlawful connection with “the
kings of the earth.” It was by departure from the Lord, and alliance
with the heathen, that the Jewish church became a harlot; and Rome,
corrupting herself in like manner by seeking the support of worldly
powers, receives a like condemnation.
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

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