I saw that since the second angel proclaimed the fall of the churches,
they have been growing more and more corrupt. They bear the name
of being Christ's followers; yet it is impossible to distinguish
them from the world. Ministers take their texts from the Word
of God, but preach smooth things. To this the natural heart feels
no objection. It is only the spirit and power of the truth and
the salvation of Christ that are hateful to the carnal heart.
There is nothing in the popular ministry that stirs the wrath
of Satan, makes the sinner tremble, or applies to the heart and
conscience the fearful realities of a judgment soon to come. Wicked
men are generally pleased with a form of piety without true godliness,
and they will aid and support such a religion.
Said the angel, "Nothing less than the whole armor of righteousness
can enable man to overcome the powers of darkness and retain the
victory over them. Satan has taken full possession of the churches
as a body. The sayings and doings of men are dwelt upon instead
of the plain, cutting truths of the Word of God. The spirit and
friendship of the world are at enmity with God. When the truth
in its simplicity and strength, as it is in Jesus, is brought
to bear against the spirit of the world, it at once awakens the
spirit of persecution. Very many who profess to be Christians
have not known God. The natural heart has not been changed, and
the carnal mind remains at enmity with God. They are Satan's faithful
servants, notwithstanding they have assumed another name."
I saw that since Jesus left the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary
and entered within the second veil, the churches have been filling
up with every unclean and hateful bird. I saw great iniquity and
vileness in the churches; yet their members profess to be Christians.
Their profession, their prayers, and their exhortations are an
abomination in the sight of God. Said the angel, "God will
not smell in their assemblies. Selfishness, fraud, and deceit
are practiced by them without the reprovings of conscience. And
over all these evil traits they throw the cloak of religion."
I was shown the pride of the nominal churches. God is not in their
thoughts; their carnal minds dwell upon themselves; they decorate
their poor mortal bodies, and then look upon themselves with satisfaction
and pleasure. Jesus and the angels look upon them in anger. Said
the angel, "Their sins and pride have reached unto heaven.
Their portion is prepared. Justice and judgment have slumbered
long, but will soon awake. Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, saith
the Lord." The fearful threatenings of the third angel are
to be realized, and all the wicked are to drink of the wrath of
God. An innumerable host of evil angels are spreading over the
whole land and crowding the churches. These agents of Satan look
upon the religious bodies with exultation, for the cloak of religion
covers the greatest crime and iniquity.
All heaven beholds with indignation human beings, the workmanship
of God, reduced by their fellow men to the lowest depths of degradation
and placed on a level with the brute creation. Professed followers
of that dear Saviour whose compassion was ever moved at the sight
of human woe, heartily engage in this enormous and grievous sin,
and deal in slaves and souls of men. Human agony is carried from
place to place and bought and sold. Angels have recorded it all;
it is written in the book. The tears of the pious bondmen and
bondwomen, of fathers, mothers, and children, brothers and sisters,
are all bottled up in heaven. God will restrain His anger but
little longer. His wrath burns against this nation and especially
against the religious bodies that have sanctioned this terrible
traffic and have themselves engaged in it. Such injustice, such
oppression, such sufferings, are looked upon with heartless indifference
by many professed followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. And many
of them can themselves inflict, with hateful satisfaction, all
this indescribable agony; and yet they dare to worship God. It
is solemn mockery; Satan exults over it and reproaches Jesus and
His angels with such inconsistency, saying, with hellish triumph,
"Such are Christ's followers!"
These professed Christians read of the sufferings of the martyrs,
and tears course down their cheeks. They wonder that men could
ever become so hardened as to practice such cruelty toward their
fellow men. Yet those who think and speak thus are at the same
time holding human beings in slavery. And this is not all; they
sever the ties of nature and cruelly oppress their fellow men.
They can inflict most inhuman torture with the same relentless
cruelty manifested by papists and heathen toward Christ's followers.
Said the angel, "It will be more tolerable for the heathen
and for papists in the day of the execution of God's judgment
than for such men." The cries of the oppressed have reached
unto heaven, and angels stand amazed at the untold, agonizing
sufferings which man, formed in the image of his Maker, causes
his fellow man. Said the angel, "The names of the oppressors
are written in blood, crossed with stripes, and flooded with agonizing,
burning tears of suffering. God's anger will not cease until He
has caused this land of light to drink the dregs of the cup of
His fury, until He has rewarded unto Babylon double. Reward her
even as she rewarded you, double unto her double according to
her works; in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double."
I saw that the slave master will have to answer for the soul of
his slave whom he has kept in ignorance; and the sins of the slave
will be visited upon the master. God cannot take to heaven the
slave who has been kept in ignorance and degradation, knowing
nothing of God or the Bible, fearing nothing but his master's
lash, and holding a lower position than the brutes. But He does
the best thing for him that a compassionate God can do. He permits
him to be as if he had not been, while the master must endure
the seven last plagues and then come up in the second resurrection
and suffer the second, most awful death. Then the justice of God
will be satisfied.