5. How has Babylon affected the world? Revelation 14:8, last part; Revelation 18:3.
NOTE: ‘The great sin charged against Babylon is that she “made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” This cup represents false doctrines that she has accepted as the result of her friendship with the world. In turn she exerts a corrupting influence upon the world by teaching doctrines opposed to the plain statements of the Bible. Were it not that the world is intoxicated with the wine of Babylon, multitudes would be convicted and converted by the plain truths of the Word of God. But religious faith appears so confused and discordant that people know not what to believe. The sin of the world’s impenitence lies at the door of the church.’ From Here to Forever, pages 240-241.
6. How does the Bible speak of fornication in a symbolic sense? Read Ezekiel 16.
NOTE: ‘The cause of the fall of Babylon is thus stated: “She made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Her fornication was her unlawful union with the kings of the earth; and the wine is that with which the church has intoxicated the nations of the earth. There is but one thing that this can refer to; viz., false doctrine. This harlot, in consequence of her unlawful union with the powers of the earth, has corrupted the pure truths of the Bible, and with the wine or her false doctrine has intoxicated the nations. A few instances of her corruption of the truths of the Bible must suffice:
1. The doctrine of a thousand years of peace and prosperity before the coming of the Lord. This doctrine will probably prove the ruin of as many souls as any heresy that ever cursed the church.
2. The corruption of the ordinance of baptism. Burial in baptism is the divinely authorised memorial of our Lord’s burial and resurrection. This has been changed to sprinkling, or pouring of water on infants, the fitting memorial of but one thing; viz., the folly and presumption of man.
3. The change of the fourth commandment. The pagan festival of Sunday has been substituted by the church for the rest-day of the Lord. The Bible plainly teaches that the sanctified rest-day of the Lord is the divinely authorised memorial of the rest of Jehovah from the work of creation. But the church has changed this to the first day of the week, to make it a memorial of our Lord’s resurrection, in the place of baptism, which has been changed to sprinkling.
4. The doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul. This was derived from the pagan mythology, and was introduced into the church by means of distinguished converts from paganism, who became “fathers of the church.” This doctrine makes man’s last foe, death, the gate to endless joy, and leaves the resurrection as a thing of minor importance. It is the foundation of modern Spiritualism.’ J. N. Andrews: The Three Messages of Revelation 14:6-12, pages 51-52.