The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 605
restraint imposed upon the carnal heart is removed, and the profession
of religion will become a cloak to conceal the basest iniquity. A belief in
spiritual manifestations opens the door to seducing spirits and doctrines
of devils, and thus the influence of evil angels will be felt in the churches.
Of Babylon, at the time brought to view in this prophecy, it
is declared: “Her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath
remembered her iniquities.” Revelation 18:5. She has filled up the
measure of her guilt, and destruction is about to fall upon her. But God
still has a people in Babylon; and before the visitation of His judgments
these faithful ones must be called out, that they partake not of her sins
and “receive not of her plagues.” Hence the movement symbolized by
the angel coming down from heaven, lightening the earth with his glory
and crying mightily with a strong voice, announcing the sins of Babylon.
In connection with his message the call is heard: “Come out of her, My
people.” These announcements, uniting with the third angel’s message,
constitute the final warning to be given to the inhabitants of the earth.
Fearful is the issue to which the world is to be brought. The powers
of earth, uniting to war against the commandments of God, will decree
that “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” (Revelation
13:16), shall conform to the customs of the church by the observance
of the false sabbath. All who refuse compliance will be visited with
civil penalties, and it will finally be declared that they are deserving of
death. On the other hand, the law of God enjoining the Creator’s rest
day demands obedience and threatens wrath against all who transgress
its precepts.
With the issue thus clearly brought before him, whoever shall
trample upon God’s law to obey a human enactment receives the mark
of the beast; he accepts the sign of allegiance to the power which he
chooses to obey instead of God. The warning from heaven is: “If any
man worship the beast
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