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21 - A Warning Rejected - The Great Controversy · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty one, a warning rejected. In preaching the Doctrine
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  Speaker 1: of the Second Advent, William Miller and his associates had
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  Speaker 1: labored with the sole purpose of arousing men to a
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  Speaker 1: preparation for the judgment. They had sought to awaken professors
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  Speaker 1: of religion to the true hope of the Church and
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  Speaker 1: to their need of a deeper Christian experience. And they
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  Speaker 1: labored also to awaken the unconverted to the duty of
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  Speaker 1: immediate repentance and conversion to God. They made no attempt
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  Speaker 1: to convert men to a sect or party in religion.
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  Speaker 1: Hence they labored among all parties and sects, without interfering
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  Speaker 1: with their organization or discipline. In all my labors, said Miller,
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  Speaker 1: I never had the desire or thought to establish any
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  Speaker 1: separate interest from that of existing denominations, or to benefit
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  Speaker 1: one at the expense of another. I thought to benefit all,
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  Speaker 1: supposing that all Christians would rejoice in the prospect of
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  Speaker 1: Christ's coming, and that those who could not see as
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  Speaker 1: I did would not love any the less those who
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  Speaker 1: should embrace this doctrine. I did not conceive there would
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  Speaker 1: ever be any necessity for separate meetings. My whole object
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  Speaker 1: was a desire to convert souls to God, to notify
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  Speaker 1: the world of a coming judgment, and to induce my
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  Speaker 1: fellow men to make that preparation of heart which will
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  Speaker 1: enable them to meet their God in peace. The great
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  Speaker 1: majority of those who were converted under my labors united
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  Speaker 1: with the various existing churches. As his work tended to
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  Speaker 1: build up the churches, it was for a time regarded
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  Speaker 1: with favor. But as ministers and religious leaders decided against
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  Speaker 1: the advent doctrine and desired to suppress all agitation of
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  Speaker 1: the subject, they not only opposed it from the pulpit,
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  Speaker 1: but denied their members the privilege of attending preaching upon
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  Speaker 1: the Second Advent, or even of speaking of their hope
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  Speaker 1: in the social meetings of the church. Thus the believers
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  Speaker 1: found themselves in a position of great trial and perplexity.
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  Speaker 1: They loved their churches and were loathed to separate from them,
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  Speaker 1: But as they saw the testimony of God's words oppressed
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  Speaker 1: and their right to investigate the prophecies denied, they felt
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  Speaker 1: that loyalty to God forbade them to submit those who
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  Speaker 1: sought to shut out the testimony of God's word. They
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  Speaker 1: could not regard as constituting the Church of Christ, the
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  Speaker 1: pillar and ground of the truth. Hence they felt themselves
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  Speaker 1: justified in separating from their former connection. In the summer
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen forty four, about fifty thousand withdrew from the churches.
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  Speaker 1: About this time, a marked change was apparent in most
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  Speaker 1: of the churches throughout the United States. There had been
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  Speaker 1: for many years a gradual but steadily increasing conformity to
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  Speaker 1: worldly practices and customs, and a corresponding decline in real
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  Speaker 1: spiritual life. But in that year there were evidences of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden and marked declension in nearly all the churches
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  Speaker 1: of the land. While none seemed able to suggest the cause,
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  Speaker 1: the fact itself was widely noted and commented upon by
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  Speaker 1: both the press and the pulpit. At a meeting of
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  Speaker 1: the Presbytery of Philadelphia, mister Barnes, author of a commentary
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  Speaker 1: widely used and pastor of one of the leading churches
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  Speaker 1: in that city, stated that he had been in the
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  Speaker 1: ministry for twenty years and never till the last Communion
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  Speaker 1: had he administered the ordinance without receiving more or less
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  Speaker 1: into the church. But now there are no awakenings, no conversions,
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  Speaker 1: not much apparent growth in grace, and professors and none
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  Speaker 1: come to his study to converse about the salvation of
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  Speaker 1: their souls. With the increase of business and the brightening
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  Speaker 1: prospects of commerce and manufacture, there is an increase of
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  Speaker 1: worldly mindedness. Thus it is with all the denominations. In
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  Speaker 1: the month of February of the same year, Professor Finney
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  Speaker 1: of Oberlin College said, we have had the fact before
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  Speaker 1: our minds that, in general, the Protestant churches of our
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  Speaker 1: country as such, were either apathetic or hostile to nearly
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  Speaker 1: all the moral reforms of the age. There are partial excepts,
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  Speaker 1: yet not enough to render the fact otherwise than general.
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  Speaker 1: We have also another corroborated fact, the almost universal absence
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  Speaker 1: of revival influence in the churches. The spiritual apathy is
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  Speaker 1: almost all pervading and is fearfully deep. So the religious
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  Speaker 1: press of the whole land testifies very extensively. Church members
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  Speaker 1: are becoming devotees of fashion, join hands with the ungodly,
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  Speaker 1: in parties of pleasure, in dancing, in festivities, et cetera.
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  Speaker 1: But we need not expand this painful subject, Suffice it
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  Speaker 1: that the evidence sickens and rolls heavily upon us to
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  Speaker 1: show that the churches generally are becoming sadly degenerate. They
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  Speaker 1: have gone very far from the Lord, and He has
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  Speaker 1: withdrawn himself from them. And a writer in the religious
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  Speaker 1: Telescope testified, we have never witnessed such a general declension
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  Speaker 1: of religion as at the present. Truly, the Church should
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  Speaker 1: awake and search into the cause of this affliction, For
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  Speaker 1: as an affliction, every one that loves Zion must view it.
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  Speaker 1: When we call to mind how few and far between
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  Speaker 1: cases of true conversion are, and the almost unparalleled impertinence
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  Speaker 1: and hardness of sinners, we almost involuntarily exclaim, has God
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  Speaker 1: forgotten to be gracious? Or is the door of mercy closed?
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  Speaker 1: Such a condition never exists without cause in the Church itself.
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  Speaker 1: The spiritual darkness which falls upon nations, upon churches, and individuals,
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  Speaker 1: is due not to an arbitrary withdrawal of the succors
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  Speaker 1: of divine grace on the part of God, but to neglect,
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  Speaker 1: a rejection of divine light on the part of men.
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  Speaker 1: A striking illustration of this truth is presented in the
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  Speaker 1: history of the Jewish people in the time of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: by their devotion to the world and forgetfulness of God
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  Speaker 1: and his word, their understanding had become darkened, their hearts
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  Speaker 1: earthly and sensual. Thus they were in ignorance concerning Messiah's advent,
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  Speaker 1: and in their pride and unbelief, they rejected the redeemer.
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  Speaker 1: God did not even then cut off the Jewish nation
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  Speaker 1: from a knowledge of or a participation in the blessings
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  Speaker 1: of salvation. But those who rejected the truth lost all
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  Speaker 1: desire for the gift of heaven. They had put darkness
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  Speaker 1: for light, and light for darkness, until the light which
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  Speaker 1: was in them became darkness. And how great was that darkness.
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  Speaker 1: It suits the policy of Satan that men should retain
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  Speaker 1: the forms of religion if but the spirit of vital
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  Speaker 1: godliness is lacking. After their rejection of the Gospel, the
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  Speaker 1: Jews continued zealously to maintain their ancient rights. They rigorously
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  Speaker 1: preserved their national exclusiveness, while they themselves could not but
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  Speaker 1: admit that the presence of God was no longer manifest
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  Speaker 1: among them. The prophecy of Daniel pointed so unmistakably to
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  Speaker 1: the time of Messiah's coming, and so directly foretold his death,
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  Speaker 1: that they discouraged its study. And finally the rabbis pronounced
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  Speaker 1: a curse on all who should attempt a computation of
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  Speaker 1: the time in blindness and impenitence. The people of Israel,
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  Speaker 1: for eighteen hundred years have stood indifferent to the gracious
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  Speaker 1: offers of salvation, unmindful of the blessings of the Gospel,
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  Speaker 1: a solemn and fearful warning of the danger of rejecting
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  Speaker 1: light from Heaven. Wherever the cause exists, the same results
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  Speaker 1: will follow. He who deliberately stifles his convictions of duty
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  Speaker 1: because it interferes with his inclinations will finally lose the
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  Speaker 1: power to distinguish between truth and error. The understanding becomes darkened,
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  Speaker 1: the conscience callous, the heart hardened, and the soul is
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  Speaker 1: separated from God. Where the message of divine truth is
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  Speaker 1: spurned or slighted, there the church will be enshrouded in darkness.
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  Speaker 1: Faith and love grow cold, and estrangement and dissension enter.
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  Speaker 1: Church members center their interests and energies in worldly pursuits,
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  Speaker 1: and sinners become hardened in their impenitence. The First Angel's
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  Speaker 1: message of Revelation fourteen, announcing the hour of God's judgment
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  Speaker 1: and calling upon men to fear and worship Him, was
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  Speaker 1: designed to separate the professed people of God from the
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  Speaker 1: corrupting influences of the world, and to arouse them to
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  Speaker 1: see their true condition of worldliness and backsliding. In this message,
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  Speaker 1: God had sent to the Church, a warning which, had
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  Speaker 1: it been accepted, would have corrected the evils that were
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  Speaker 1: shutting them away from Him. Had they received the message
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  Speaker 1: from Heaven, humbling their hearts before the Lord and seeking
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  Speaker 1: in sincerity a preparation to stand on his presence, the
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  Speaker 1: spirit and power of God would have been manifested among them.
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  Speaker 1: The Church would again have reached that blessed state of unity,
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  Speaker 1: faith and love which existed in Apostolic days, when the
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  Speaker 1: believers were of one heart and of one soul, and
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  Speaker 1: spake the word of God with boldness, when the Lord
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  Speaker 1: added to the church daily such as should be saved.
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  Speaker 1: If God's professed people would receive the light as it
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  Speaker 1: shines upon them from His word, they would reach that
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  Speaker 1: unity for which Christ prayed, that which the apostle describes
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  Speaker 1: the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
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  Speaker 1: There is, he says, one body and one spirit, even
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  Speaker 1: as year called in one hope of your calling, one Lord,
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  Speaker 1: one faith, one baptism. Such were the blessed results experienced
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  Speaker 1: by those who accepted the Advent message. They came from
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  Speaker 1: different denominations, and their denominational barriers were hurled to the ground.
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  Speaker 1: Conflicting creeds were shivered to atoms. The unscriptural hope of
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  Speaker 1: a temporal millennium was abandoned. False views of the Second
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  Speaker 1: Advent were corrected, Pride and conformity to the world were
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  Speaker 1: swept away, Wrongs were made right, hearts were united in
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  Speaker 1: the sweetest fellowship, and love and joy reigned supreme. If
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  Speaker 1: this doctrine did this for the few who did receive it,
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  Speaker 1: it would have done the same for all if all
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  Speaker 1: had received it. But the churches generally did not accept
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  Speaker 1: the warning. Their ministers, who, as watchmen unto the House
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  Speaker 1: of Israel, should have been the first to discern the
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  Speaker 1: tokens of Jesus coming, had failed to learn the truth,
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  Speaker 1: either from the testimony of the prophets or from the
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  Speaker 1: signs of the times. As worldly hopes and ambitions filled
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  Speaker 1: the heart, love for God and faith in his word
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  Speaker 1: had grown cold, and when the Advent doctrine was presented,
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  Speaker 1: it only aroused their prejudice and unbelief. The fact that
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  Speaker 1: the message was, to a great extent preached by layman,
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  Speaker 1: was urged as an argument against it. As of old,
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  Speaker 1: the plain testimony of God's word was met with the
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  Speaker 1: inquiry have any of the rulers or of the pharisees believed? And,
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  Speaker 1: finding how difficult a task it was to refute the
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  Speaker 1: arguments drawn from the prophetic periods, many discouraged the study
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  Speaker 1: of the prophecies, teaching that the prophetic books were sealed
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  Speaker 1: and were not to be understood. Multitudes, trusting implicitly to
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  Speaker 1: their pastors, refused to listen to the warning, and others,
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  Speaker 1: though convinced of the truth, dared not confess it lest
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  Speaker 1: they should be put out of the synagogue. The message
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  Speaker 1: which God had sent for testing and purification of the church,
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  Speaker 1: revealed all too shit. Surely, how great was the number
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  Speaker 1: who had set their affections on this world rather than
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  Speaker 1: upon Christ. The ties which bound them to earth were
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  Speaker 1: stronger than the attractions heavenward. They chose to listen to
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  Speaker 1: the voice of worldly wisdom and turned away from the
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  Speaker 1: heart searching message of truth. In refusing the warning of
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  Speaker 1: the First Angel, they rejected the means which Heaven had
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  Speaker 1: provided for their restoration. They spurned the gracious messenger that
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  Speaker 1: would have corrected the evils which separated them from God,
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  Speaker 1: and with greater eagerness they turned to seek the friendship
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  Speaker 1: of the world. Here was the cause of that fearful
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  Speaker 1: condition of worldliness, backsliding, and spiritual death which existed in
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  Speaker 1: the churches in eighteen forty four. In Revelation fourteen, the
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  Speaker 1: first angel is followed by a second proclaiming Babylon has fallen,
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  Speaker 1: is fallen that great city, because she made all nations
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  Speaker 1: drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
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  Speaker 1: The term Babylon is derived from Babel and signifies confusion.
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  Speaker 1: It is employed in scripture to designate the various forms
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  Speaker 1: of false or apostate religion. In Revelation seventeen, Babylon is
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  Speaker 1: represented as a woman, a figure which is used in
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  Speaker 1: the Bible as the symbol of a church, a virtuous
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  Speaker 1: woman representing a pure church, a vile woman, and apostate church.
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  Speaker 1: In the Bible, the sacred and enduring character of the
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  Speaker 1: relation that exists between Christ and his Church is represented
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  Speaker 1: by the union of marriage. The Lord has joined his
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  Speaker 1: people to himself by a solemn covenant, He promising to
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  Speaker 1: be their God, and they pledging themselves to be his
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  Speaker 1: and His alone. He declares, I will betroth thee unto
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  Speaker 1: me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in
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  Speaker 1: righteousness and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies.
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  Speaker 1: And again I am married unto you. And Paul employs
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  Speaker 1: the same figure in the New Testament when he says,
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  Speaker 1: I have espoused you to one husband that I may
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  Speaker 1: present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. The unfaithfulness
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  Speaker 1: of the Church to Christ, in permitting her confidence and
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  Speaker 1: affection to be turned from Him and allowing the love
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  Speaker 1: of worldly things to occupy the soul, is likened to
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  Speaker 1: the violation of the marriage bell. The sin of Israel
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  Speaker 1: in departing from the Lord is presented under this figure,
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  Speaker 1: and the wonderful love of God which they thus despised,
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  Speaker 1: is touchingly portrayed. I swear unto thee and entered into
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  Speaker 1: a covenant with THEE, saith the Lord God, and thou
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  Speaker 1: becamest mine, and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst
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  Speaker 1: prosper into a kingdom, and thy renown went forth among
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  Speaker 1: the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through
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  Speaker 1: my comeliness which I had put upon thee. But thou
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  Speaker 1: didst trust in thine own beauty and play'st the Harlot
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  Speaker 1: because of thy renown. As a wife treacherously departeth from
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  Speaker 1: her husband. So have ye dealt treacherously with me. O
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  Speaker 1: house of Israel, saith the Lord as a wife that
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  Speaker 1: committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband. In
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  Speaker 1: the New Testament language, very similar is addressed to professed
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  Speaker 1: Christians who seek the friendship of the world above the
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  Speaker 1: favor of God, says the apostle James. Ye adulterers and
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  Speaker 1: adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world
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  Speaker 1: is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend
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  Speaker 1: of the world is the enemy of God. The woman
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  Speaker 1: Babylon of Revelation seventeen is described as a rayed in
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  Speaker 1: purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious
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  Speaker 1: stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand,
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  Speaker 1: full of abominations and filthiness, and upon her forehead was
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  Speaker 1: a name written Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of Harlot's,
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  Speaker 1: says the prophet, I saw the woman drunken with the
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  Speaker 1: blood of the saints and with the blood of the
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  Speaker 1: martyrs of Jesus. Babylon is further declared to be that
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  Speaker 1: great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
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  Speaker 1: The power that for so many centuries maintained despotic sway
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  Speaker 1: over the monarchs of Christendom is Rome. The purple and
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  Speaker 1: scarlet color, the gold and precious stones and pearls vividly
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  Speaker 1: picture the magnificence and more than kingly pomp affected by
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  Speaker 1: the haughty sea of Rome. And no other power could
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  Speaker 1: be so truly declared drunken with the blood of the
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  Speaker 1: saints as that church which has so cruelly persecuted the
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  Speaker 1: followers of Christ. Babylon is also charged with the sin
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  Speaker 1: of unlawful connection with the kings of the earth. It
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  Speaker 1: was by departure from the Lord and alliance with the
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  Speaker 1: Heathen that the Jewish Church became a Harlot, and Rome,
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  Speaker 1: corrupting herself in like manner by seeking the support of
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  Speaker 1: worldly powers, receives a like condemnation. Babylon is said to
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  Speaker 1: be the mother of Harlot's by her daughters must be
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  Speaker 1: symbolized churches that cling to her doctrines and traditions, and
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  Speaker 1: follow her example of sacrificing the truth and approval of
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  Speaker 1: God in order to form an unlawful alliance with the world.
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  Speaker 1: The message of Revelation fourteen, announcing the fall of Babylon,
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  Speaker 1: must apply to religious bodies that were once pure and
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  Speaker 1: have become corrupt. Since this message follows the warning of
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  Speaker 1: the Judgment, it must be given in the last days. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: it cannot refer to the Roman Church alone, for that
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  Speaker 1: church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries. Furthermore,
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  Speaker 1: in the eighteenth chapter of the Revelation, the people of
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  Speaker 1: God are called upon to come out of Babylon. According
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  Speaker 1: to this scripture, many of God's people must still be
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  Speaker 1: in Babylon. And in what religious bodies are The greater
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  Speaker 1: part of the followers of Christ now to be found,
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  Speaker 1: without doubt in the various churches professing the Protestant faith.
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  Speaker 1: At the time of their rise, these churches took a
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  Speaker 1: noble stand for God and the truth, and His blessing
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  Speaker 1: was with them. Even the unbelieving world was constrained to
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  Speaker 1: acknowledge the beneficent results that followed an acceptance of the
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  Speaker 1: principles of the Gospel in the words of the Prophet
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  Speaker 1: to Israel, thy renown went forth among the heathen for
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  Speaker 1: thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness which
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  Speaker 1: I had put upon thee saith the Lord God. But
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  Speaker 1: they fell by the same desire, which was the curse
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  Speaker 1: and ruin of Israel, the desire of imitating the practices
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  Speaker 1: and courting the friendship of the ungodly. Thou didst trust
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  Speaker 1: in thine own beauty and playe'st the herb it because
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  Speaker 1: of thy renown. Many of the Protestant churches are following
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  Speaker 1: Rome's example of iniquitous connection with the kings of the earth,
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  Speaker 1: the state churches by their relation to secular governments, and
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  Speaker 1: other denominations by seeking the favor of the world, and
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  Speaker 1: the term babylon confusion may be appropriately applied to these bodies,
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  Speaker 1: all professing to derive their doctrines from the Bible, yet
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  Speaker 1: divided into almost innumerable sects with widely conflicting creeds and theories.
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  Speaker 1: Besides a sinful union with the world, the churches that
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  Speaker 1: separated from Rome present other of her characteristics. A Roman
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  Speaker 1: Catholic work argues that if the Church of Rome were
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  Speaker 1: ever guilty of idolatry in relation to the saints her daughter.
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  Speaker 1: The Church of England stands guilty of the same, which
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  Speaker 1: has ten churches dedicated to Mary for one dedicated to Christ.
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  Speaker 1: And Doctor Hopkins, in a treatise on the Millennium, declares,
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  Speaker 1: there is no reason to consider the anti Christian spirit
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  Speaker 1: and practices to be confined to that which is now
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  Speaker 1: called the Church of Rome. The Protestant churches have much
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  Speaker 1: of Antichrist in them, and are far from being wholly
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  Speaker 1: reformed from corruptions and wickedness. Concerning the separation of the
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  Speaker 1: Presbyterian Church from Rome, doctor Guthrie writes, three hundred years
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  Speaker 1: ago our church with an open Bible on her banner,
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  Speaker 1: and this motto searched the scriptures on her scroll, marched
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  Speaker 1: out from the gates of Rome. Then he asks a
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  Speaker 1: significant question, did they come clean out of Babylon? The
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  Speaker 1: Church of England, says Spurgeon, seems to be eaten through
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  Speaker 1: and through with sacramentarianism, but nonconformity appears to be almost
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  Speaker 1: as badly riddled with philosophical infidelity. Those of whom we
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  Speaker 1: thought better things are turning aside one by one from
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  Speaker 1: the fundamentals of the faith through and through I believe
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  Speaker 1: the very heart of England as honeycombed with a damnable infidelity,
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  Speaker 1: which dares still go into the pulpit and call itself Christian.
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  Speaker 1: What was the origin of the Great Apostasy? How did
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  Speaker 1: the church first depart from the simplicity of the Gospel
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  Speaker 1: by conforming to the practices of paganism to facilitate the
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  Speaker 1: acceptance of Christianity by the heathen. The apostle Paul declared,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: even in his day, the mystery of iniquity doth already work.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: During the lives of the apostles, the church remained comparatively pure,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: but toward the latter end of the second century, most
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: of the churches assumed a new form. The first simplicity disappeared,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: and insensibly as the old disciples retired to their graves,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: their children, along with new converts, came forward and new
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: modeled Because to secure converts, the exalted standard of the
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Christian faith was lowered, and as the result, pagan flood
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: flowing into the church carried with it its customs, practices,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: and idols. As the Christian religion secured the favor and
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: support of secular rulers, it was nominally accepted by multitudes,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: but while in appearance Christians many remained in substance Pagans,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: especially worshiping in secret their idols. Has not the same
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: process been repeated in nearly every church calling itself Protestant.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: As its founders those who possess the true spirit of
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: reform pass away, their descendants come forward and new model
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the cause, while blindly clinging to the creed of their
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: fathers and refusing to accept any truth in advance of
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: what they saw. The children of the reformers depart widely
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: from their example of humility, self denial, and renunciation of
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the world. Thus the first simplicity disappears, a worldly flood
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: flowing into the church, carries with it its customs, practices,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and idols. Alas to what a fearful extent is that
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: friendship of the world, which is enmity with God now
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: cherished among the professed followers of Christ. How widely have
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: the popular churches throughout Christendom departed from the Bible standard
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: of humility, self denial, simplicity and godliness. Said John Wesley
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: in speaking of the right use of money, Do not
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: waste any part of so precious a talent merely in
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: gratifying the desire of the eye by superfluous or expensive apparel,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: or by needless ornaments. Waste no part of it In
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: curiously adorning your houses, in superfluous or expensive furniture, in
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: costly pictures, painting, guilding, lay out nothing to gratify the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: pride of life. To gain the admiration or praise of men.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: So long as thou doest well unto thyself, men will
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: speak good of thee. So long as th ouurt clothed
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: in purple and fine linen, and fairest sumptuously every day,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: no doubt many will applaud thy elegance of taste, thy generosity,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: and hospitality. But do not buy their applause. So dear
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: rather be content with the honor that cometh from God.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: But in many churches of our time such teaching is disregarded.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: A profession of religion has become popular with the world. Rulers, politicians, lawyers, doctors,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: merchants join the Church as a means of securing the
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: respect and confidence of society and advancing their own worldly interests.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Thus they seek to cover all their unrighteous transactions under
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: a profession of Christianity. The various religious bodies. Reinforced by
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: the wealth and influence of these baptized worldlings, make a
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: still higher bid for popularity and patronage. Splendid churches, embellished
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: in the most extravagant manner, are erected on popular avenues.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: The worshipers array themselves in costly and fashionable attire. A
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: high salary is paid for a talented minister to entertain
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: and attract the people. His sermons must not touch popular sins,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: but be made smooth and pleasing for fashionable ears. Thus,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: fashionable sinners are enrolled on the church records, and fashionable
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: sins are concealed under a pretense of godliness. Commenting on
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: the present attitude of professed Christians toward the world, a
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: leading secular journal says, insensibly, the church has yielded to
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the spirit of the age and adapted its forms of
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: worship to modern wants, all things indeed that help to
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: make religion attractive. The church now employs as its instruments
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: and a writer in the New York Independence speaks thus
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: concerning methodism, as it is, the line of separation between
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the godly and the irreligious fades out into a kind
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: of penumber and zealous men on both sides are toiling
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: to obliterate all difference between their modes of action and enjoyment.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: The popularity of religion tends vastly to increase the number
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: of those who would secure its benefits without squarely meeting
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: its duties. Says Howard Crosby, it is a matter of
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: deep concern that we find Christ's Church so little fulfilling
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the designs of its Lord. Just as the ancient Jews
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: let a familiar intercourse with the idolatrous nations steal away
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: their hearts from God, so the Church of Jesus now is,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: by its false partnerships with an unbelieving world, giving up
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: the divine methods of its true life and yielding itself
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: to the pernicious, though often plausible habits of a christless society,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: using the arguments and reaching the conclusions which are foreign
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: to the revelation of God and directly antagonistic to all
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: growth and grace. In this tide of worldliness and pleasure, seeking,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: self denial and self sacrifice for Christ's sake are almost
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: wholly lost. Some of the men and women now in
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: active life in our churches were educated when children to
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: make sacrifices in order to be able to give or
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: do something for Christ. But if funds are wanted now
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: nobody must be called on to give. Oh, no, have
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a fair tableau, mock trial, antiquarian supper, or something to eat,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: anything to amuse the people. Governor Washburn of Wisconsin, in
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: his annual message January ninth, eighteen seventy three, declared, some
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: law law seems to be required to break up the
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: schools where gamblers are made. These are everywhere, even the Church. Unwittingly,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: no doubt, is sometimes found doing the work of the devil.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Gift concerts, gift enterprises, and raffles, sometimes in aid of
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: religious or charitable objects, but often for less worthy purposes. Lotteries,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: prize packages, et cetera. Are all devices to obtain money
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: without value received. Nothing is so demoralizing or intoxicating, particularly
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: to the young, as the acquisition of money or property
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: without labor. Respectable people engaging in these chance enterprises and
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: easing their consciences with the reflection that the money is
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: to go to a good object. It is not strange
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: that the youth of the States so often fall into
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: the habits which the excitement of games of hazard is
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: almost certain to engender the spirit of worldly conformity is
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: invading the churches throughout Christendom. Robert Atkins, in a sermon
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: preached in London, draws a dark picture of the spirit
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: declension that prevails in England. The truly righteous are diminished
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: from the earth, and no man layeth it to heart.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: The professors of religion of the present day in every
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: church are lovers of the world, conformers to the world,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: lovers of creature, comfort, and aspirers after respectability. They are
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: called to suffer with Christ, but they shrink from even reproach. Apostasy. Apostasy.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Apostasy is engraved on the very front of every church.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: And did they know it? And did they feel that
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: there might be hope? But alas they cry, we are
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: rich and increased in goods, and stand in need of nothing.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: The great sin charged against Babylon is that she made
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: her fornication. This cup of intoxication which she presents to
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: the world represents the false doctrines that she has accepted
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: as the result of her unlawful connection with the great
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: ones of the earth. Friendship with the world corrupts her faith,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: and in her turn, she exerts a corrupting influence of
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: the world by teaching doctrines which are opposed to the
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: plainest statements of Holy writ Rome withheld the Bible from
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the people and required all men to accept her teachings
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: in its place. It was the work of the Reformation
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: to restore to men the word of God. But is
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: it not too true that in the churches of our time,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: men are taught to rest their faith upon their creed
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: and the teachings of their church, rather than on the scriptures.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Said Charles Beecher, speaking of the Protestant churches. They shrink
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: from any rude word against creeds with the same sensitiveness
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: with which those Holy Fathers would have shrunk from a
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: rude word against the rising veneration of saints and martyrs
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: which they were fostering. The Protestant Evangelical denominations have so
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: tied up one another's hands and their own, that between
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: them all a man cannot become a preacher at all
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: anywhere without accepting some book besides the Bible. There is
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: nothing imaginary in the statement that the creed power is
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: now beginning to prohibit the Bible as really as Rome did,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: though in a subtler way. When faithful teachers expound the
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Word of God, there arise men of learning, ministers professing
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: to understand the scriptures, who denounce sound doctrine as heresy
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: and thus turn away inquirers after truth. Were it not
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: that the world is hopelessly intoxicated with the wine of Babylon,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: multitudes would be convicted and converted by the plain cutting
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: truths of the Word of God. But religious faith appears
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: so confused and discordant that the people know not what
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: to believe as truth. The sin of the world's impenitence
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: lies at the door of the church. The Second Angel's
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: message of Revelation fourteen was first preached in the summer
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: of eighteen forty four, and it then had a more
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: direct application to the churches of the United States, where
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the warning of the judgment had been most widely proclaimed
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and most generally rejected, and where the declension in the
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: churches had been most rapid. But the message of the
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Second Angel did not reach its complete fulfillment in eighteen
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: forty four. The churches then experienced a moral fall in
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent message.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: But that fall was not complete, as they have continued
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: to reject the special truths for this time they have
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: fallen lower and lower. Not yet, however, can it be
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: said that Babylon has fallen because she made all nations
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: She has not yet made all nations do this. The
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: spirit of world conforming an indifference to the testing truths
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: for our time exists and has been gaining ground in
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: churches of the Protestant faith in all the countries of Christendom.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: And these churches are included in the Solemn and Terrible
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Denunciation of the Second Angel. But the work of apostasy
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: has not yet reached its culmination. The Bible declares that
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: before the coming of the Lord, Satan will work with
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: deceivableness of unrighteousness. And they that received not the love
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: of the truth that they might be saved will be
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: left to receive soar strong delusion that they should believe
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: a lie. Not until this condition shall be reached, and
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the union of the Church with the world shall be
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: fully accomplished throughout Christendom, will the fall of Babylon be complete.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: The change of the progressive One and the perfect fulfillment
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: of Revelation fourteen eight is yet future. Notwithstanding the spiritual
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: darkness and alienation from God that exist in the churches
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: which constitute Babylon, the great body of Christ's true followers
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: are still to be found in their communion. There are
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: many of these who have never seen the special truths.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: For this time. Not a few are dissatisfied with their
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: present condition and are longing for clearer light. They look
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: in vain for the image of Christ in the churches
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: with which they are connected. As these bodies depart farther
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: and farther from the Truth and ally themselves more closely
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: with the world, the difference between the two classes will widen,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: and it will finally result in separation. The time will
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: come when those who love God supremely can know no
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: longer remain in connection with such as are lovers of
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of Godliness,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: but denying the power thereof Revelation eighteen points to the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: time when, as the result of rejecting the threefold warning
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: of Revelation fourteen six through twelve. The Church will have
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: fully reached the condition foretold by the Second Angel, and
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the people of God still in Babylon will be called
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: upon to separate from her communion. This message is the
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: last that will ever be given to the world, and
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: it will accomplish its work when those that believe not
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness shall be left
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: to receive strong delusion and to believe a lie. Then
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the light of truth will shine upon all whose hearts
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: are open to receive it, and all the children of
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: the Lord that remain in Babylon will heed the call.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Come out of her, my people. End of chapter twenty one.