No. 806
Part Four – Babylon Arraigned
“The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof . . . He shall call to the heavens from above [the high or ruling powers], and to the earth [the masses of the people], that he may judge his [professed] people [Christendom].” (Psa. 50:1, 4)
“Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel [nominal spiritual Israel – Babylon, Christendom], and I will testify against thee . . . But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother [the true saints, the wheat class]; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” (Psa. 50:7, 16-22)
This is a continuation from our September 2024 paper on “The Day of Vengeance.”
__________________
The civil and ecclesiastical powers of Christendom, Babylon, are now being weighed in the balances of justice, in full view of the whole world. This is the logical consequence of the great increase of knowledge on every subject in this “day of preparation” for Christ’s Millennial reign. The hour of judgment having come, the Judge is now on the bench. The witnesses – the general public – are present, and the “powers that be” are permitted to hear the charges and then to speak for themselves. Their cases are being tried in open court, and all the world looks on with intense and feverish interest.
The object of this trial is not to convince the great Judge of the actual standing of these powers, for we are already forewarned of their doom by His “sure word of prophecy.” Already men can read upon the walls of their banqueting halls the writing of the mysterious, but fateful, hand – “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin!” The present trial, involving the discussion of rights and wrongs, of doctrines, authorities, etc., is to manifest to all men the real character of Babylon. Though men have long been deceived by her vain pretensions, they may eventually, through this process of judgment, fully realize the justice of God in her final overthrow. In this trial, her claims of superior sanctity and divine authority to rule the world, as well as her many monstrous and contradictory doctrinal claims, are all being called in question.
With evident shame and confusion before such a throng of witnesses, the civil and ecclesiastical powers, through rulers and clergy as their representatives, endeavor to render up their accounts. In all the annals of history, there has never been such a condition. Never have ecclesiastics, statesmen, and civil rulers been examined, cross-questioned and criticized as now at the bar of public judgment. The heart-searching Spirit of the Lord is thus operating upon them to their great confusion. In spite of their determination and effort to avoid the examination, they are obliged to endure it, and the trial proceeds.
BABYLON WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES
The masses today are boldly challenging both the civil and ecclesiastical powers of Christendom to prove their claims of divine authority to rule. However, neither they nor the rulers see that God has permitted a lease of power to such rulers, whether good or bad, until “the Times of the Gentiles” expire. During this time, God has largely permitted the world to manage its own affairs and take its own course in self-government, so that all men might learn that, in their fallen condition, they are incapable of self-government, and that it does not pay to try to be independent either of God or of each other. (Rom. 13:1)
The rulers and the ruling classes of the world have not recognized this, but realizing their opportunity, they have taken advantage of the less fortunate masses, by whose permission and tolerance they have long been sustained in power. They have endeavored to foist upon the illiterate masses the absurd doctrine of the “divine right of kings” – both civil and ecclesiastical. They have fostered and encouraged ignorance and superstition among the masses for many centuries for the purpose of perpetuating this doctrine that is so convenient to their policy.
Only in relatively recent times have knowledge and education become general, and this has come about by providence, and not by the efforts of rulers and ecclesiastics. The printing press and steam transportation were the initial chief agencies in promoting it. Prior to these divine interpositions, the masses of men, being to a large extent isolated from one another, were unable to learn much beyond their own experiences. But these agencies have been instrumental in bringing about a wonderful increase of travel and of social and business interaction, so that all men, of whatever rank or station, may profit by the experiences of others throughout the whole world.
Now the reading, traveling, and thinking public is fast becoming the discontented and clamorous public, with little reverence left for the kings and potentates that have held together the old order of things under which they now so restlessly chafe. Light has dawned upon the minds of the masses, and they cannot be relegated to their former darkness. With the gradual increase of knowledge, republican forms of government have been demanded, and the monarchical have been of necessity greatly modified by force of their example and the demands of the people.
In the dawning light of the new day men begin to see that under the protection of false claims, supported by the people in their former ignorance, the ruling classes have been selfishly making merchandise of the natural rights and privileges of the rest of mankind. And, looking on and weighing the claims of those in authority, they are rapidly reaching their own conclusions. But being themselves actuated by no higher principles of righteousness and truth than the ruling classes, the judgment of the masses is as far from right on the other side of the question, their growing disposition being hastily to ignore all law and order rather than to consider coolly and dispassionately the claims of justice on all sides in the light of God’s Word.
While the present organization and order of society (Babylon, Christendom) as represented by her statesmen and her clergy is being weighed in the balances of public opinion, her many monstrous claims are seen to be foundationless and absurd. The heavy charges against her of selfishness and of nonconformity to the golden rule of Christ, whose name and authority she claims, have already overbalanced, and lifted the beam so high that, even now, the world has little patience to hear the further proofs of her really antichristian character.
Her representatives call upon the world to note the glory of their kingdoms, the triumphs of their arms, the splendor of their cities and palaces, the value and strength of their institutions, political and religious. They strive to reawaken the old-time spirit of clannish patriotism and superstition, which formerly bowed in submissive and worshipful reverence to those in authority and power; which lustily shouted, “Long live the king!” and reverently regarded the persons of those who claimed to be the representatives of God.
But those days are past: the remains of the former ignorance and superstition are fast disappearing, and with them the sentiments of clannish patriotism and blind religious reverence. In their place are found independence, suspicion and defiance, which seem likely before long to lead to world-wide strife – anarchy. The peoples of the various ships of state talk angrily and threateningly to the captains and pilots, and at times grow almost mutinous.
They claim that the present policy of those in power is to make merchandise of all their natural rights. Many insist with increasing vehemence upon displacing the present captains and pilots and letting the ships drift while they contend among themselves to gain control. But against this wild and dangerous clamor the captains and pilots, the kings and statesmen, contend and hold their places of power, shouting all the while to the people, “Hands off! you will drive the vessel onto the rocks!”
Then the religious teachers come forward and counsel submission on the part of the people. Seeking to emphasize their own authority as coming from God, they connive with the civil powers to hold the people under restraint. But they also begin to realize that their power is gone, and they are casting about for some means to re-enforce it, so they talk of union and cooperation among themselves. We hear them arguing with the state for more assistance from that source, promising in return to uphold civil institutions with their (waning) power. But all the while a storm is rising, and while the masses of the people, unable to comprehend the danger, continue to clamor, the hearts of those at the helms of the ships fail them for fear of that which they now see must surely come.
The ecclesiastical powers in particular feel it incumbent upon them to render up their accounts in order to make the best possible showing, thus to restrain, if possible, the revolutionary current of public sentiment against them. But as they attempt to apologize for the meager good results of the past centuries of their power, they only add to their own confusion and perplexity, and arouse the attention of others to the true condition of affairs.
CIVIL AND SOCIAL POWERS ARRAIGNED
This was noted in the New York Evening Post: “Among all the strange beliefs of the race, there is none stranger than that which made Almighty God select with care some of the most ordinary members of the species, often sickly, stupid and vicious, to reign over great communities under his special protection, as his representatives on earth.” The judgment of the civil powers is going against them. Not only is the press thus outspoken, but the people everywhere are loudly talking and clamoring against the powers that be. The unrest is universal, and is becoming more and more dangerous every year.
Christendom’s social system is also under scrutiny, including its monetary regulations, its financial schemes and institutions, its selfish business policy, and its class-distinctions based mainly on wealth, with all that this implies of injustice and suffering to the masses of men. These things are being as severely handled in the judgment of this hour as the civil institutions.
Witness the interminable disputes between labor and capital. The concerted mutterings of innumerable voices sound against the present social system like surging waves of the sea under a rising wind, particularly in so far as it is seen to be inconsistent with the moral code contained in the Bible, which Christendom, in a general way, claims to recognize and follow.
It is indeed a notable fact that in the judgment of Christendom, even by the world at large, the standard of judgment is the Word of God. Heathen (non-Christian) people hold up the Bible, and boldly declare, “You are not as good as your book.” They point to its blessed Christ, and say, “You do not follow your pattern.” And both the heathen and the masses of Christendom use the golden rule and the law of love to measure the doctrines, institutions, policy and general course of Christendom. All alike testify to the truth of the strange handwriting on her walls – “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” (Dan. 5:27)
The world’s testimony against the present social system is heard everywhere in every land, with all men declaring it to be a failure. The opposition is increasingly active, and is spreading alarm all over the world, terribly shaking all confidence in existing institutions, and from time-to-time paralyzing industry with panics, strikes, etc. There is not a nation in Christendom where the opposition to the present social arrangements is not pronounced, obstinate and increasingly threatening.
ECCLESIASTICAL POWERS JUDGED
The criticism of Ecclesiasticism is fully as severe as that of Monarchy and Aristocracy, for they are recognized as one in interest. In the general commotion of these times, many in the church as well as in the world are greatly perplexed and bewildered by the great confusion. Not only are the conduct and influence of the churches severely criticized, but their most prominent doctrines are as well.
For instance, the thinking public has begun to question the doctrine of eternal torment for the great majority of our race. This blasphemous doctrine has long held men in control through fear. The clergy have begun to see a very urgent necessity for emphasis on this subject in order to counteract the growing sentiments of liberalism. The clergy express often their views as if the eternal torture of their fellowmen were a matter of only trivial consequence, to be discussed with flippant jest and laughter, and declared as truth without a particle of evidence or Bible investigation. The world marks this presumptive arrogance, and draws its own conclusions in the matter.
We thus see the present order of things trembling in the balances of public opinion. The appointed time for its overthrow having come, the great Judge of all the earth lifts up the scales of human reason and points to the weights of truth and justice. Turning up the light of increasing knowledge, He invites the world to test and prove the righteousness of His decision in condemning to destruction the hollow mockery of Christendom’s false pretensions. Gradually, but rapidly, the world is applying the test, and in the end all will arrive at the same decision; and as a great millstone, Babylon, the great city of confusion, with all her boasted civil and ecclesiastical power, and with all her assumed dignity, her wealth, her titles, her influence, her honors, and all her vain glory, will be cast into the sea (the restless sea of ungovernable peoples) to rise no more. (Rev. 18:21; Jer. 51:61-64)
Her destruction had a beginning by the end of the appointed “Times of the Gentiles” – 1914. Events are rapidly progressing toward such a crisis and termination. Though the trial is not yet completed, already many can read the handwriting of her doom – “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting!” Eventually the fearful doom of Babylon, Christendom, will be realized. The old superstitions that have long upheld her are fast being removed: old religious creeds and civil codes hitherto reverenced and unhesitatingly endorsed are now boldly questioned, their inconsistencies pointed out, and their palpable errors ridiculed.
The trend of thought among the masses, however, is not toward Bible truth and sound logic, but rather toward infidelity. Infidelity is rampant, both within and outside the church nominal. In the professed Church of Christ, the Word of God is no longer the standard of faith and the guide of life. Human philosophies and theories are taking its place, and even heathen notions are beginning to flourish in places formerly beyond their pale.
Only a few in the great nominal church are sufficiently awake and sober to realize her deplorable condition, considering only her numerical and financial strength. The masses in both pews and pulpits are much too intoxicated and stupefied by the spirit of the world to even note her spiritual decline, but numerically and financially her waning condition is keenly felt. All the interests, prospects and pleasures of the present life are linked with the perpetuation of her institutions. To secure these, it is deemed necessary to keep up a fair showing of fulfilling what is believed to be her divine commission – to convert the world.
When we thus see Babylon arraigned to answer for herself in the presence of an assembled world, the Psalmist’s prophecy of this event, quoted at the beginning of this paper, comes back to mind with great force. God has kept silent during all the centuries wherein evil triumphed in His name and His true saints suffered persecution in multiplied forms; however, He has not been oblivious to those things. Now the time has come whereof He spoke by the Prophet, saying, “These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.” (Psa. 50:21)
Let all who would be awake and on the right side in these times of tremendous import mark well these things and see how perfectly prophecy and fulfilment correspond.
(Excerpt from Studies in the Scriptures, Volume IV, Chapter IV, pages 75-112, condensed and edited. Lengthy quotations have been omitted.)
________________________________________________________
IN MEMORIAM
The Life of Pastor Russell
“He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.” (Jer. 23:28)
October 31 will mark 108 years since our beloved Brother Russell left us. Thousands all over our land, and in every land under the sun, bear witness to their gratitude to God that He raised up a man who has been the instrument in His hand of snatching them from the very brink of doubt and infidelity, placing their feet on the solid rock of Christ’s “ransom for all.” Their religious teachers kept saying: “Don’t go to hear that man Russell; he preaches dangerous doctrine.” But, by the Grace of God, they went and received the spiritual food they had been starving for, the spiritual food their religious teachers did not know how to give.
When men with a heart full of gratitude would tell him of the blessings they had received, he would simply say something like this: “Brother, I am glad you received blessings from God’s Word; His truth is very precious.” He simply ignored his part in the matter. In proof that this was his attitude, hear his own words, as found on page ten of his celebrated book, The Divine Plan of the Ages:
“Though in this work we shall endeavor, and we trust with success, to set before the interested and unbiased reader the plan of God as it relates to and explains the past, the present and the future of His dealings, in a way more harmonious, beautiful and reasonable than is generally understood, yet that this is the result of extraordinary wisdom or ability on the part of the writer, is positively disclaimed. It is the light from the Sun of Righteousness in this dawning of the Millennial Day that reveals these things as ‘present truth’ . . .”
He believed that the time was due for these truths to be made known, and if he had not written them, God would have found someone else to do so.
One of the great objects of his life was to show that the Bible, when correctly translated and rightly understood, is harmonious throughout, and gives the most exalted and uplifting conception of our Creator and our duties to Him that is possible for a human being to attain. To show this complete harmony of the Bible, of all its parts, was no easy task. It meant labor. At that time there was great indifference on the part of the people. Most of them did not seem to care whether the various texts of the Bible were in harmony with one another or not. Each seemed more interested in seeking such texts as prove or seemed to prove his particular creed, and ignored such texts as opposed it.
They were merely seeking such knowledge as they thought would save them and their friends, and seemed utterly indifferent as to what truth honors God most. In 1 Sam. 2:30 the Lord says, “Them that honour me I will honour.” This promise is not to those who carry on some great work of charity or make an attempt to convert the world, for these things are often done in such a way as to dishonor God. Many are engaged in these things; few make it the chief object of their lives to do those things and to preach those doctrines that bring most honor to God’s name. Most men seem utterly indifferent on this matter.
At a time when such indifference was widely prevalent, Pastor Russell began his work of showing the harmony of the Bible with itself and with the character of its divine Author. He saw that there is no way to bring permanent blessing to the human race except through faith in God and faith in the Bible. He therefore sought to show how worthy the Bible is of all our faith and love. That was the great motive of his life. We know that this was his motive, not because he told us so, but because the motive rings through every article that he wrote and every sermon that he preached. Therefore, it is natural for us, as thoughtful men and women, to inquire, “What were the events of his life and the various circumstances leading up to such a motive?”
His father was a well-to-do merchant, and the son, when not engaged in study, spent much of his time helping his father in the store. By so doing, he rendered himself liable to the awful charge that certain ministers in various parts of the country brought against him – that in his early life he was “a seller of shirts.” In this work, however, he developed the qualities of industry, perseverance and earnestness of purpose, qualities that were such prominent characteristics of his mature years. In this work the young man manifested such business acumen that, in a few years, he was the owner of five clothing stores. In all this work he was so thoroughly honest and his goods so thoroughly reliable that his success was marvelous, so marvelous that some who then knew him believe that if he had continued in the mercantile business, he might have rivaled in the accumulation of wealth by some of the richest money kings of his day. But his great desire was not to be rich, but to be useful.
While Pastor Russell had his friends and admirers, he also had his enemies and persecutors. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2 Tim. 3:12) Pastor Russell likewise had his persecutors who tried to minimize his work, burned his books, and attempted to destroy his good name.
But the more they burned the books, the more the truth spread. In the Dark Ages they sometimes sought to terrify the people by burning the Bibles in the streets, and thus compel them to submit to the prescribed forms of religion, the “Orthodox” forms. There is too much of the spirit of liberty and tolerance in free America for such an indignity to be perpetrated today without arousing a sense of justice in the minds of those who hate tyranny.
His parents were of the “orthodox” faith, and up to the age of fifteen he believed all and only such doctrines as his sectarian ministers took the trouble to teach him. The clergy as a rule discouraged questions. He simply believed the doctrines of the church he attended, especially the doctrine of the eternal torment of all except the saints. At the age of fifteen, he used to go about the city of Pittsburgh on Saturday evenings with a piece of chalk, writing on the fence boards and telling the people not to fail to attend church on Sunday, so that they might escape that terrible hell in which he so firmly believed. At about this time it seems that Providence had decreed that he should attempt to reclaim an infidel friend to Christianly. By skillful questions that neither layman or minister could answer and hold to the accepted creed, the infidel completely routed young Russell, and he became a skeptic. He saw, for instance, that with the doctrine of eternal torment in it he could not believe the Bible, though he still held to a belief in God and the hope of a future life.
As he desired to learn the truth in regard to the hereafter, the next few years were devoted to the investigation of the claims of the leading Oriental religious, all of which he found unworthy of credence. At the age of twenty he was possessed of much knowledge and voluminous data in regard to “religion” as believed and practiced in all parts of the world, but his mind was unsatisfied and unsettled. At length he decided to search the Scriptures for their own answer on hell-fire and brimstone. Here was the turning point in his life.
As he searched the Scriptures for the answer, the answer came. Not one text, merely, but texts by the hundreds showing the foolishness and unreasonableness of the doctrine of eternal torment. He read, “The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.” (Psa. 145:20) It does not say “All the wicked will be roasted eternally.” Again, “He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death.” (Jas. 5:20) “The soul that sinneth, it shall die [not live in torment eternally].” (Ezek. 18:4, 20) In fact, he saw that all the comparisons and contrasts in the Bible are never between life in happiness and life in misery, but always between life and death, eternal life or eternal death, with all the wicked utterly destroyed in what the Scriptures call “the second death.” They will be completely destroyed “as though they had not been,” and even the remembrance of them “shall rot.” They will utterly pass from the memory of all forever. (Oba. 1:16; Prov. 10:7)
He saw a loving God looking down upon a sin-cursed earth with an eye of pity and love, and in order to make it possible for us to have eternal life, He must give what was dearest to Him in the whole universe. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) When he saw all this and far more, his great heart was thrilled to its very depths. It was then that he gave his heart to the Lord in full consecration, ready to do or say or be whatever the Lord might show him.
To the very ends of the earth, he told the Bible truth that “the wages of sin is death,” and not eternal torment. (Rom. 6:23) His words have been heard by many who will not admit that they have heard, believed by many who will not admit they believe.
(By E. D. Stewart. Edited excerpts from the postscript of What Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly, pages 435-440)
Write to us at: epiphanybiblestudents@gmail.com