The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 384

the truth and the approval of God, in order to form an unlawful alliance
with the world. The message of Revelation 14, announcing the fall
of Babylon must apply to religious bodies that were once pure and
have become corrupt. Since this message follows the warning of the
judgment, it must be given in the last days; therefore it cannot refer to the
Roman Church alone, for that church has been in a fallen condition for
many centuries. Furthermore, in the eighteenth chapter of the Revelation
the people of God are called upon to come out of Babylon. According
to this scripture, many of God’s people must still be in Babylon. And
in what religious bodies are the greater part of the followers of Christ
now to be found? Without doubt, in the various churches professing the
Protestant faith. At the time of their rise these churches took a noble
stand for God and the truth, and His blessing was with them. Even the
unbelieving world was constrained to acknowledge the beneficent results
that followed an acceptance of the principles of the gospel. In the words
of the prophet to Israel: “Thy renown went forth among the heathen for
thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I had put
upon thee, saith the Lord God.” But they fell by the same desire which
was the curse and ruin of Israel—the desire of imitating the practices
and courting the friendship of the ungodly. “Thou didst trust in thine
own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown.” Ezekiel
16:14, 15.
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.
Besides a sinful union with the world, the churches that separated
from Rome present other of her characteristics.

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