Thursday, September 17
Read Revelation 14:8, Revelation 17:3-6, and Revelation 18:1-4. What do we learn about spiritual Babylon from these verses?
In the book of Revelation, the term “Babylon” represents a false system of religion based on human works, man-made traditions, and false doctrines. It exalts human beings and their self-righteousness above Jesus and His sinless life. It places the commands of human religious teachers above the commands of God. Babylon was the center of idolatry, sun worship, and the false teaching of the immortality of the soul. This false religious system has subtly integrated many of ancient Babylon’s religious practices into its worship. God’s last-day message to our dying planet is the message of Jesus and His righteousness. It echoes heaven’s appeal, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen … Come out of her, my people” (Revelation 18:2, 4). God has divinely raised up the Seventh-day Adventist Church to exalt the message of Christ in all of its fullness. To exalt Jesus is to lift up everything He taught. It is to proclaim the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). It is to expose the errors of Babylon in contrast to the truths of Jesus.
Read Revelation 14:7, 9-11. What contrasting objects of worship are highlighted in these verses?
Revelation 14 describes two different acts of worship — the worship of the Creator, and the worship of the beast. These two acts of worship center around God’s day of worship, the true Sabbath, and a substitute or counterfeit Sabbath. The Sabbath represents the rest, assurance, and security that we have in Christ our Creator, Redeemer, and coming King. The counterfeit day represents a human and false substitute based on human reasoning and man-made decrees.
Read Revelation 14:12. What is this text saying, especially in the context of what came before? How are the law and grace both revealed in this text, and what should this teach us about how law and grace are two inseparable aspects of the gospel?
