1) The document discusses the differences between the true church represented by a pure woman in Revelation 12 and the false church represented as a harlot woman in Revelation 17. 2) It describes how the false church, represented by Babylon, leaves its true lover Jesus and commits spiritual adultery by uniting with political leaders through false doctrines spread like wine in a golden cup. 3) These false doctrines substitute man's teachings for God's word, promote salvation through works rather than grace, and advocate for intercession through statues rather than through Jesus the sole mediator.

1. The Mystery of Revelation's BabylonRevealed
By Pastor Mark Finley
Our topic tonight is the mystery of spiritual Babylon revealed. It was in the fall of 1982 the sun
was rising over lake Michigan, and I was waking up as any other morning in the early 80's to a
cool autumn Chicago morning. As we turned on the news to get filled in with the events of the
day, we were stunned as the news reports reported an event of the night before. Mary Kellerman
had come home from high school and felt a little flush. She felt that she had some flu symptoms,
and her temperature was rising. So she asked her parents for some medication for relief.
Immediately they went to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and brought out some Tylenol
tablets. As Mary took those capsules or tablets she dropped off to sleep. But soon she began
sweating profusely. Her temperature continued to go up. She tried to make her way to the
bathroom and her vital signs dropped, blood pressure dropped, heart stopped beating and Mary
fell limp on the bathroom floor. In a few moments Mary was dead. Her parents were shocked
and stunned. And all of Chicago was shocked because that night seven other individuals that
took Tylenol capsules died as well. The next morning America was even more stunned when 12
deaths were attributed to cyanide poison laced Tylenol capsules.
Some mad man, some raving maniac had unscrewed the caps of medication that was supposedly
safe and tampered with that medication. Placing poison in the pills. Poison was substituted there
in that medication. Individuals coming thinking that they were going to find relief really had
counterfeit pills, substitute pills, pills laced with poison.
I wonder if anything like that could happen in the religious arena? I wonder if error could be
mixed with truth? I wonder if there is a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof is
the way of death. I wonder if a cosmic tamperer, a cosmic deceiver has laced Christian thought
with error and that many people thinking that they are actually receiving the undiluted truth or
the medication from God's word, I wonder if in this controversy between good and evil, that in
this controversy between Christ and Satan that Satan has tampered with the truth of God's Word.
Revelation reveals Satan's final deceptions. Revelation that last book in the Bible unmasks the
plans of the devil. It reveals the plans of God. John looking up in prophetic vision saw God's
protection from last day delusions because Revelation is God's protection from last day
delusions. Yes, a tamperer has tampered with the very truths of God's word. Yes, this tamperer
has introduced a poisonous substitute and many taking it indeed receive fatal injections from the
enemy. The book of Revelation is the book of contrasts. Revelation chapter 12 reveals in the
symbolism of a pure chaste woman God's church. Revelation the 12th chapter says and there
appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet
and upon her head a crown of 12 stars. Revelation 12 and verse 1. This woman reflecting the
glory of the sun stands robed in the righteous loving character of Jesus. The 12 stars on her head
represent of course the 12 apostles, the moon under her feet indicates that the old testament
period as the moon reflects the sun, the old testament reflects the light of Jesus, the new
testament reflects the beauty of Christ more fully. And so this church, this woman. You see in
Bible prophecy what does a woman represent? The Bible is very plain. Second Corinthians,
chapter 11:2, for I am jealous for you with Godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one

2. husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. In the book of Revelation a woman
represents the church. A pure woman, a virgin, a woman that has not prostituted herself by going
out after the world, but a woman that's loyal to her true lover, Jesus, the bride of Christ
represents the true church. So the woman in white in Revelation 12 represents Christ's true
church. His church that is emerging in the new testament. She is standing on the moon, the old
testimony period is over that reflects the light of Christ's glory. She is crowned with the 12 stars
guided by the 12 apostles. So Revelation chapter 12 describes the pure church, the true church.
But Revelation chapter 17 describes a different picture. A different woman. The Bible describes
her in these words. Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot. Here is no pure
woman but a woman that is left her lover Jesus. A church that has committed spiritual adultery
with the world. Here is not the true church picture but the apostate church who sits on many
waters. I wonder what are those waters with whom the kings of the earth have committed
fornication? How does this fallen church commit fornication? Or have an illicit union with the
political state leaders. And the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her
fornication. What is that wine? What does that mean in Revelation 17 and verse 1 and 2? The
Bible goes on, Revelation 17:3, I saw a woman this fallen church, this false system of religion,
sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names of blasphemy. A beast represents a king or
kingdom. So the fallen church guides or directs political kingdoms. But it has a cup full of
blasphemy. In the book of Revelation, a woman represents the church in general. A harlot
woman represents the false church that's left her true lover Jesus. A pure woman represents the
true church. Waters or seas, the Bible says in Revelation 17, the chapter we're studying, verse 15,
the waters you saw are peoples or nations. So the great sea of humanity or waters are represented
as peoples. The kings of the earth are of course the political leaders or the scientific leaders. To
be drunk means to be deceived.
One night in fact when I was a young Pastor my 20's, I was preaching on the wine of Babylon
and how when you drink wine it makes you drunk. And you can't think straight. And a drunk
man wandered into the meeting. And I got wound up as a young preacher. If you think I speak
fast now you should have heard me when I was young! But I got wound up as a young preacher
and I was preaching away, wailing away on wine and drunkenness how it confuses you. And this
old guy in the back got up and shook his fist. He said that's enough, young man! That's enough.
He slept through half of the meeting. I started talking about drunkenness, and that was enough
for him. But anyway, back to the Bible.
To be drunk means (you know alcohol affects your conscious and your forebrain and it deals
with deception). So spiritual drunkenness means you're deceived. Wine has to do with false
teachings. Do you see the picture? The false church, the harlot church, the false system of
religion leaves her lover, Jesus. She dominates over many waters or peoples. She commits union,
fornication with the kings of the earth. Jesus' true church, his bride is united to him. The false
church has fornication, leaves Christ and unites with the power of the state. So when the church
and state unite the church gets power from the state rather than getting power from Jesus. And so
the false church unites with the kings of the earth, the political leaders. This false church has a
cup, a cup of wine. A cup of false doctrines, a cup of error. A cup of apostasy. And it passes
around its wine cup and millions of people think they are drinking the wine of the gospel. They
think they are taking the wine of truth. But they have the false wine, the fermented wine and they

3. are deceived and they are drunk and they don't even know it. What a prophecy, in the book of
Revelation. Man and women drinking from the wine of Babylon. Men and women sipping from
the cup of false doctrine. Men and women so spiritually drunk that they don't understand what
they have taken.
Well, what does this Babylonian system represent? What is this false system of religion? What is
this counterfeit system of religion? Why does the Bible use the term "Babylon "? You remember
that in the old testament God told the human race that they would never be destroyed by a flood
again. But yet rebellious men built a tower so that if the world ever was destroyed by a flood
they would be safe. It was called the tower of what, everybody? Babel. The tower of Babel. Why
is it called Babel? Because that's where God confused the languages. So, Babel, the tower of
Babel is the site upon which the city of Babylon was built. The city of Babylon had its origin
when God confused the languages of the tower of Babel. The term Babylon in Revelation
represents religious confusion. So Babylon is confused. It represents the confusion that comes in
with man's teachings rather than God's teachings. Babylon represents man's way rather than
God's way. It representatives the traditions of men rather than the very word of God.
Here in Revelation two very different systems of religion collide. There is the truth that comes
from Jesus Christ and there is the error that comes from the system of Babylon. In the book of
Revelation there is God's way, leading to his word. And there is man's way, leading to human
tradition. In the book of Revelation there is the woman in white representing apostolic purity,
true doctrine, the word of God, the true gospel of Christ. And there is the woman in scarlet
representing confusion, religious apostasy, and rebellion against God. The Bible describes her
and it says this false system of religion was arrayed in purple and scarlet. In other words, the
vestments or robes of her priests are purple and scarlet. And adorned with gold and precious
stones in her great temples or churches they have lost the simplicity of the new testament church
and they are ornamented with precious gold worth millions of dollars. In her hand this false
system has a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. Revelation
17:4.
I wonder what is in that golden cup? I wonder what doctrines she passes around? The Bible in
Psalm 116:13 talks about the cup of salvation. Jesus invites us to the cross. Jesus invites us to
Calvary. He invites us there to drink of the grace of God, drink of the mercy of God, drink of the
cup of salvation. But the wine of Babylon in the controversy between good and evil in the
controversy between Christ and Satan, the wine of Babylon gets people drunk with the opposite
of the gospel of God's grace and his word. Revelation predicted that thousands would be
deceived as the false teachings of ancient Babylon entered the church. If you want to really know
what's in that cup, if you really want to know what those false doctrines of Babylon are, if you
really want to know about the counterfeit gospel, and the false teachings that tens of thousands of
churches have accepted, we have to go back to ancient Babylon. And we have to discover what
were the principles of ancient Babylon that would be taken from Babylonian religion and
brought into Christianity and many Christians accept them.
Here is the wine cup. The first deception is this. Satan's deception regarding the scriptures, the
wine of Babylon has to do with man's way rather than God's way, man's word rather than God's
word. Early Christianity was totally and completely founded and rooted in God's word. The

4. ancient Babylonians and you're looking at an archeological discovery that comes out of Babylon,
the ancient Babylonian leaders sat on their thrown. They uttered their command under the
auspices of the sun God, the king of Babylon's word issued from his thrown under the authority
of the sun God. And that was law. So in ancient Babylon the word of the king is law. In ancient
Babylon the word of man takes the place of the word of God. In the controversy between good
and evil, in the final days the Bible says in II timothy 4:4 they will turn away from listening to
the truth and give their attention to legends. And so the false church, the corrupt system would be
based in the councils of the church, it would be based in the word of man, it would be based in
the decrees of the prelates, it would be based in the statements of the bishops. In fact one
historian said this. Quote, this is James Wary, Christianity had now become popular. This is the
church in the middle ages. A large portion, perhaps a large majority of those who embraced it,
only assumed the name. They are as much heathen as they were before. Error and corruption
now came in upon the church like a flood. Dr. James Wharey's Church History, page 54. Notice
error and corruption came into the church. The church was drinking from the wine cup of
Babylon. The church drifted from its faith in scripture. The church drifted from its reliance upon
the word of God. The church drifted from those truths of scripture. Church councils and their
decrees took the place of the word of God. Man's word took the place of God's word. What does
the cup of Babylon include? It includes the teachings of man. It includes the teachings of church
council. It includes a drift from God's word. Don't you love the way Jesus put it? Jesus said in
John 17:17, sanctify them through thy word, thy word is truth. In the great controversy between
good and evil, in the great controversy between truth and error, in the great controversy between
Christ and Satan, man's word never can substitute for God's word because God's word is truth.
What is in that wine cup secondly? Satan's deception regarding salvation. Just as the Babylonians
substituted the word of the king for the word of the Hebrew prophets, the word of man for the
word of God, so the Babylonians substituted or counterfeited salvation. In fact do you remember
that King Nebuchadnezzar looking at Babylon said this. Daniel 4:30. Is this not great Babylon
that I have built. You see, Nebuchadnezzar looked out at his city. And as he did he saw that
magnificent city, that city of splendor and glory and Nebuchadnezzar said in pride, in arrogance,
is not this great Babylon that I have built, I have done this with my hands, I have done this by my
works. These are my attainments. For the Christian, salvation never comes by my hands.
Salvation never comes by my works. The gospel of God's grace levels our pride. Because we
come to the cross. We come to Jesus and the Bible says in Romans 3:24, being, read it with me
please, being justified freely, what's that word? Freely, by his grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus. Justified freely by his grace. Babylon says penances, Babylon says
indulgences, Babylon says save yourself by your works. But the gospel says, the gospel of God's
grace, the wine of the gospel says, come like you are, come with your pride, come with your
greed, come with your lust, come with your anger, come with your bitterness, come to the cross
and experience God's grace, his forgiveness and his mercy. Allow Jesus to cleanse you. The
fallen church passes around her wine cup of false doctrines. Substituting human works for the
cross of Christ. You see, if you and I attain salvation by our works we will never feel secure in
God's grace because no matter how good you are you're never as good as God. No matter how
good you are, you're never as perfect as God. So you always fall short. You're always are
frustrated. But the gospel says turn away from penances, turn away from indulgences, turn away
from human works, fall at the foot of the cross and let your heart be crushed by God's grace and
let human pride be replaced by humble repentance and accept salvation in Jesus. You see, the

5. cross of Christ in Revelation 1:5, the Bible says we're washed by his blood, but Babylon
according to Genesis 11 offers human works for the cross. In a world that is drinking Babylon's
wine, the scriptures says Christ is my only savior. In the wine cup Satan deceives regarding
intercession. You see in Babylon you had to approach God through intermediaries. The
Babylonians had 13 Gods. Bal Marduk was the chief. And you always had to go through
somebody else. You never were good enough to come to God. You never could approach God by
yourself. You always had to go through an intermediary. So the Babylonians had all kinds of
statues. And those statues would represent you before God? But the Bible says in 1 Timothy 2:5
for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The Bible
says there is one God and one mediator. We do not come to God through statues. We do not
come to God through idols because Jesus Christ who died is our mediator. He is our intercessor.
We come to God not through a statue. We come to God not through saints. We come to God not
through icons. We come to God through Jesus Christ! Babylon substitutes man's word for God's.
Babylon substitute human counsels for the divine truth of God's word. Babylon confusion,
substitutes human works for the grace of God. Babylon substitutes what man can do for the cross
of Calvary. Babylon confusion substitutes images. It substitutes idols, it substitutes saints for the
mediation of Christ. Christ is our mediator. The Bible says thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image. Thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them. The Bible continues,
when it says that to approach God through statues is to establish another mediator besides Jesus
Christ. We don't come to Jesus through Peter. We don't come to Jesus through the apostles. We
come to God through Jesus. Jesus according to the Bible is our only mediator. In Egypt had you
to come through Isis and Osiris, that was paganism. In Scandinavia you game through Frigga and
Balder. In Rome you came through Venus and Adonis, in Babylonia you came through Ishtar
and Tammuz. In Phoenicia you came through Ashtoreth and Baal. In pagan religions you can't
approach God. You have to come through the intermediary and the statues represented the
varying pagan Gods. In paganism these statues were brought to Christianity but we come not
through any human saint or intermediary. There is one mediator between God and man, the man
Jesus Christ.
Many pagan practices came into the church in the history of civilization, book 5, page 188, it
says pagan ceremonies were established in Christian churches until Christianity exhibited so
grotesque and hideous a form that its best features were lost and it's early loveliness altogether
destroyed. Many Christians drunk the wine cup of Babylon. Images came into the church Ð the
wine of Babylon, church councils took the place of the word of God, the wine of Babylon.
Indulgences and penance's, the wine of Babylon came into the church. But Christ is our
intercessor between God and man. Christ my intercessor is in a heavenly temple not made with
hands. But idols were put in human temples on earth. Do you see the difference? In God's way
Jesus is our intercessor in the heavenly temple. In man's way we worship through idols in an
elaborate ornate earthly temple. In the wine cup Satan would bring in the sun worship of the
pagans, rename it as Sunday and he would have a deception regarding creation and regarding the
Sabbath. In fact, when you go back to the book of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapter 8, the Bible says
that Babylonian worship actually began to slip in to the church in the days of ancient Israel. At
the door of the temple of the Lord between the porch and the altar were about five and twenty
men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east. And what
were they doing in the temple of the Lord? What were they doing? They worshipped the sun
toward the east. Ezekiel 8:16. They worshipped the sun. Here, Babylonian pagan sun worship

6. was coming right into the temple of the Lord and that's what's happened today in the church.
Babylonian pagan sun worship, renamed as Sunday in honor of the resurrection, just like they
renamed some of those pagan idols in harmony with the saints and brought them into the church,
so Sunday has been christened by the church, brought in, and the word of God, the
commandment of God has been neglected and violated.
The Bible says in Daniel 7:25, he shall speak pompous words against the most high and shalt
persecute the saints of the most high. And shall intend to change times and the law. The apostate
church, the counterfeit system, the wine of Babylon would change the very law of God. In fact,
sun worship has been a part of pagan culture down through the ages and sanctified it would come
into the church. One of the clearest descriptions of how this wine of Babylon came into the
church, one of the clearest descriptions of all of this comes from our Catholic World in 1994. I
think probably of all the descriptions I've read of how Sunday came into the church our Roman
Catholic friends understand it the most clearly. And this is what Father O'Brien said. The sun
was a foremost God with Heathenism. The sun has worshippers at this hour in Persia and other
lands. There is in truth something royal, kingly about the sun, he said, making it a fit emblem of
Jesus, the sun of justice. Hence the church in these countries would seem to have said keep that
old pagan name, that Sunday, it shall remain consecrated, sanctified, and thus the pagan Sunday,
dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday sacred to Jesus. The Catholic World, March,
1994, page 809. Do you see what happened? The pagans were worshipping on Sunday. The
church in an attempt to win the pagans accepted Sunday and they were confused part of the wine
of Babylon, there was a disregard for God's law and as Daniel the prophet said would happen in
Daniel 7:25, they thought the confused church, the popular church, the medieval church, the
wine of Babylon, with the authority of man rather than the authority of God's word, thought it
could change times and laws. Can any church change the law of God, ladies and gentlemen? Can
they? The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for what? Ever. Hebrews
13:8. The Bible says in Malachi chapter 3, I am the Lord and I change not. God said, written
with his own finger, on tables of stone, Exodus 20:8-10, "remember the Sabbath day". Who
wrote that? Remember the Sabbath day, who wrote that? God himself did. To keep it holy. Why?
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the 7th day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
The 7th day Sabbath is a memorial of creation. If you do away with the Sabbath, pretty soon
you're going to say, oh, we really weren't created, we evolved. If you do away with the Sabbath
you're going to do with the first 11 chapters of Genesis. If you do away with the 11 chapters of
Genesis the first 11, you will do away with the authority of the Bible. If do you away with the
authority of the Bible you're going to do away with the ten commandments. If you do away with
creation, you put a lie in Jesus' mouth because said he created them male and what? Female. The
Bible says God spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. Part of the wine of
Babylon is the error that evolution took place because if we evolved and we're getting better we
didn't need a savior, correct? If God used evolution to bring this world into existence and if
human beings were progressively getting better why Jesus? Why the cross? Why a savior? If
evolution is God's way, there is no significance at all to the Sabbath, as a memorial of creation.
Are you aware what's going on this very week? U.S. News and World Report, November 4,
1996, you say, wait Pastor, it's only November 1. We couldn't even find this on the news stand
here in Orlando. We had to look all over because it's the newest magazine just out. Here is the
headline. Vatican thinking evolves. Did you see the recent pronouncement? Let me quote. U.S.
News and World Report, November 4, 1996. Did God create mankind in his image as the Bible

7. says or did humans evolve from animals as Darwin theorized nearly 150 years ago? According to
Pope John Paul II, And I'm simply quoting the news magazine, "evolution may be a better
explanation." Do you believe that ladies and gentlemen? That we evolved? Now, notice you can
read it in your own magazine. I'm quoting. "The statement is unlikely to influence catholic
schools, where evolution has been taught since the 1950's." Indeed, reading the entire Bible
literally has not been a dominant practice among Catholics through much of the 20th century.
That's time magazine. This is so hot it's in Newsweek, it's in Time, November 4, 1996. And so
the argument is you can't take the Bible literally. Here is Peter Stravatika, quoted in this article in
Time, the editor of the 1991 Catholic encyclopedia, and he says, you can read it this week: "We
should not interpret genesis literally." Now look folk. If you do away with the first 11 chapters of
Genesis you give the human race no sense of the creator God. Why should I worship God if he
did not create me? If he is just some first force that allowed evolution to come into place.
You see this is an attack on the Bible Sabbath because if we did not, if we were not created by
God in six literal days and if God did not rest on the seventh, the Sabbath is not a memorial to an
evolution over thousands of years of time. So if you want to attack the Sabbath then you try to
attack it by saying we weren't created. Here is an amazing statement from time magazine. "In his
message to a meeting of the academy of sciences which had taken the origin of life as its theme,
the statement by John Paul reflects the church's acceptance of evolution." Do you see why God
has to have a message in the book of Revelation going to the ends of the earth? What does --
what is that message? It's no accident, ladies and gentlemen that at the very time that the church
pronounces that it believes in evolution, the Roman Church, it is no accident that these satellite
meetings are going on at that time. Preaching this message in Revelation 14, "then I saw another
angel flying in the middle of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach." This message is
flying. It goes up by satellite 23,000 miles in less than half a second. It says, "then I saw another
angel flying in the middle of heaven, having the ever lasting gospel", it's the ever lasting gospel,
that the word of God is still true, it's the everlasting gospel that Jesus Christ still saves. It's the
everlasting gospel that Jesus is my only mediator. No saints as intermediaries. It's the everlasting
gospel this world was still created by God! It says "saying with a loud voice to them that dwell
on earth to every nation, to every tribe, to every tongue, to every people," a message to go to the
whole world! The world that's been drinking the wine of Babylon, the world that is confused
over the Sabbath. The Bible says fear God and give glory to him. For the hour of his judgment is
come.
In this closing hour when churches deny the history of the Bible they deny the authority of the
Bible, when popular religious leaders say maybe God used evolution, in this hour it says worship
him who made heaven, earth, sea and the fountains of waters. In this hour it says worship the
creator God. Revelation's message is a call to worship the Creator. And how do we worship him
as the creator? By accepting his Sabbath as the sign or the symbol of creative activity. The
Sabbath is God's flag, the Sabbath is God's symbol that he indeed created the world.
I want no wine of Babylon. What about you, folk? No so-called sanctified sun worship that's
come into the church. The Bible says in Ezekiel 20:20, hallow my Sabbaths and they will be a
sign between me and you that you may know that I'm the Lord your God. In an age of evolution,
in an age when creation is being cast off, in an age when the Bible is being debunked, the
Sabbath is a sign of creative power of God.

8. The Bible says on her forehead the false system of religion, the false church, counterfeit system a
name was written, mystery, Babylon the great. Babylon the great. The great mother church. It
says the mother of harlots, she is the mother church but there are other fallen Protestant churches
in addition to the mother church and of the abominations of the earth, Revelation 17:5.
Listen to this. Absolutely amazing description by Father O'Brien. Did you ever notice, Father
O'Brien's book, called The Faith Of Millions. His reasoning is so clear. You can't mistake it. This
is that very famed Catholic author in his book, The Faith Of Millions. He says, "But since
Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn't it curious that non-Catholics who profess to
take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the church observe Sunday instead of
Saturday?" Now, Father O'Brien, in his book Faith Of The Millions is appealing to all Protestant
to come back to the fold of the catholic church. And he says you Protestants who have left us
isn't it curious you say you are take your faith from the Bible but you are still keeping Sunday?
Then father O'Brien goes on. "Yes, of course, it is inconsistent, but the change was made about
fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born. They have continued to observe custom even
though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic church and not upon an explicit text in the
Bible." Do you see what the issue is? The authority of the church as opposed to the Bible. Now I
continue. "That observance remains the reminder", now remember the Bible says the mother of
harlots, "it remains the reminder of the mother church from which non-Catholic sects broke away
like a boy running away from his mother but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or
a lock of her hair." That's from Faith of Millions" , Reverend John O'Brien page 421. Here is his
reasoning. And his reasoning is good. His reasoning is outstanding. He said for you Protestants,
you say you go by the Bible only. But you still observe Sunday, the first day, and the day was
changed by the church. So the only way you can be consistent and keep Sunday is if you say the
authority of the church is above the authority of the Bible. But he said you still have that picture,
like a little boy running away from his mother. Sunday is a symbol that you're still connected to
the mother church. That is the reasoning of Father O'Brien. And if you follow his reasoning it's
very logical. But for those of us that go by the Bible and the Bible only, we keep the Bible
Sabbath as a symbol of creation because Christ is our true rest.
And every Sabbath we rest from our works, we rest from our labors, we rest in Jesus Christ as he
commanded. Because we believe he's our creator. We believe that he is our redeemer. And we
believe that he is our coming king and we can rest in his love.
Satan passes around the wine cup. Satan's deception regarding death, in this wine cup the
authority of man above the authority of the Bible. In this wine cup the works of man above the
cross of Christ. In this wine cup the saints and images rather than Jesus as intercessor, in this
wine cup man's day Sunday rather than the Sabbath, in this wine cup a deception regarding
death.
The Babylonians, Ezekiel 8:14, the Bible says, "so he brought me to the door of the north gate of
the Lord's house. And to my dismay women were sitting weeping for Tammuz." Who was
Tammuz? And why were the women weeping? Tammuz was the God of vegetation, the
Babylonian influence had come to Judaism. And the Jews here were weeping because they
thought Tammuz was immortal and they accepted the immortality of the soul. In fact, according

9. to The Watchman, April 1940, "the pagan doctrine of the immortality of the human soul crept
into the back door of the church in the early centuries." The Bible teaches that when you die it's a
rest. It's a sleep. But Revelation 17:3, I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet colored beast which was
full of names of blasphemy. The wine of Babylon included the idea that the soul lives on. Once
you accept the idea that the soul lives on it opens your mind for spiritualism, it opens your mind
to be deceived by demons. But the Bible says, Ecclesiastes 9:5, read it with me please, "for the
living know that they shall die, but the dead know not any thing." How much do the dead know?
Nothing. Death is a sleep. A sleep until Jesus comes. A sleep until Christ streams down the
corridor of the sky. A sleep until the resurrection. Christ is my life giver. We do not have natural
immortality. The Bible says Revelation 1:18, that Christ has the keys to hell and the grave and
death. The Babylonians believed in the immortality of the soul. And so millions have been
drinking from the wine cup of Babylon. And so God sends his message in these last days of
earth's history. God speaks and says in Revelation 18:4, "and I heard another voice from heaven
saying, come out of her, my people." Come out of her what? my people. In tones of tender love,
in tones of compassion Jesus says you haven't known, Jesus says you've been drinking of the
wine cup of Babylon, of man's word rather than God's word. Of human works. And you've been
struggling to be saved rather than falling at the foot of the cross and letting Jesus save you.
You've been coming to me through idols and images and God says come to me through my son
Jesus Christ. You haven't known the truth about the Bible Sabbath that it was the bulwark against
evolution. That it was God's sign in these lost days, you haven't known, you haven't understood
the truth that when you die you sleep because the dead know not anything. 1600 times the Bible
uses the word soul, not once immortal soul, not once in 1600 times. 53 times the Bile says death
is a sleep. But Jesus says my people, you are in, some of are you in the fallen churches. Some of
you are in churches that have substituted man's word for God's word and man's way for God's
way and man's law for God's law. But Jesus said, come out of her, come out of the counterfeit,
come out of the false, come out of her, my people.
Many of Jesus people are in the Orthodox church, many of Jesus people are in the Catholic
church, many of Jesus people in the Baptist church, the Pentecostal church, the Methodist, but
God has a last day movement, here is the foundation of Babylon. It's based on the authority of
man. It's based on the word of man. It's based on the works of man. It's based on the law of man.
It's based on the traditions of man. Here is the foundation of the divine system. It's based on the
authority of God. It's based on the word of God. It's based on the love of God. It's based on the
law of God. It's based on the teachings of God. Here are two systems, the true and the false, the
genuine and the counterfeit. The real and the one that's been tampered with. And Jesus says
come out of her, my people!
God is gathering His people today. Honest hearted men and women. Men and women who have
never known these things. Men and women who love Jesus with all their heart. But where do you
go when you gathers you? Jesus never calls to you come out unless he calls you to come in. He
never calls to you go out unless he has a place for you to go. He doesn't call you to come out and
to flounder on your own. Where do you go? Revelation 14:12, read it with me please. "Here is
the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of
Jesus." We go where we find the faith of Jesus. Based on the Bible. We go where we find
salvation in the cross. We go where we find a sense that Jesus is our only priest. We go to a
Sabbath keeping movement that's looking forward to the coming of Jesus. That holds up the

10. Sabbath as a sign of creation in a world of evolution. We go where we find the truth about death
that you sleep until Jesus comes again. We find a Sabbath keeping Adventist body and Jesus says
go there, go there, go there because it's there that we find God's truth. And God is reaching out
and touching people around the world. God is reaching out in countries around the world. He's
reaching out and leading men and women to him, honest seekers.
It is no accident that you are here tonight. It's no accident, friend. It's no accident that -- that your
friend invited you to come to these meetings. It's no accident you've been coming every night,
some of you coming five nights a week, driving 20 miles, 30 miles, 50 miles, a hundred miles.
When you began coming to these meetings, you never thought that you would come so many
nights a week. But it is as if God brought you here. Some in foreign countries have been walking
to the meetings. Slogging their way through rain and mud. Some walking an hour, some walking
two hours. There are many who have accepted Jesus in these meetings, some children youth, 17,
18, 19, I just got e-mails today disowned by their parents. There have been persecutions where
some who have accepted Christ today I heard, were bloodied in some of these countries because
they stood for truth. There have been times that people were cast out of their jobs in poor homes
and families because they wanted to follow God's truth. For these faithful men and women, for
these stalwart men and women who heard God's call, who have taken that step, who have been
courageous and faithful to God, they have put their lives in God's hands.
God had said come out. In their villages they have come out even if they are the only one. In
their churches they have come out even if they are the only one. In their cities they have come
out. They recognize God is leading out millions today. Tens of millions around the world hearing
God's call, accepting God's message. The Bible says that in Revelation, God's message would go
with a loud voice that they would come from the north, and the south. They would come from
the east and the west. They would come from the United States. They would come from Canada.
They could come from all of Europe. They would come from South America. They would come
from Inter America. They would come from Africa. They would come from the far east. Around
the world they would come. In the last days of earth's history they would come.
Friend of mine, tonight, would you like to say to Jesus, Jesus, I'm coming. Jesus, I'm coming too.
Our ushers have a response card. Just now in the quietness I'd like them to pass out that response
card. This is a very sacred time in our meetings wherever you are. If you're in an auditorium or
church or movie theater that's crowded, that's packed, just hesitate a moment until you get your
card. If you're in a little country church, if you would just hesitate a moment until you get your
card. I would like every person to have a card.
You know, some people ask me why is it that you pass out these response cards. There are two
reasons. First, it gives me an opportunity to know how God is leading in your life. It gives me an
opportunity to know what God is doing in your heart. But secondly, it gives you an opportunity
to respond. You know, the apostle Paul said behold now is the day of salvation. The apostle Paul
didn't simply speak. He urged his hearers to respond. Tonight the truth of the Bible is plain. It's
very plain. God's movement in the last days is based totally on the Bible. Salvation is based
totally in Jesus Christ. And God has given to us a sign of this his creative authority against
evolution and that's the Sabbath. And the devil through spiritualism is going to work in the last
days on those who believe in the immortality of the soul. The counterfeit system talks about

11. tradition. It talks about church councils. The counterfeit system talks about penances and
indulgences and idols. The counterfeit system introduces Sunday. And there are Protestant
churches that are sipping the wine of the medieval church by keeping Sunday. They have
accepted the idea that the soul goes to heaven when you die. That's all part of Babylon.
I'd like you to take your card. And as Walter comes just know to sing I'd like to go over it with
you. As Walter is singing this first verse, I'd like you to fill it out. Our lights can go on here in
Orlando and you can turn the lights on all across the United States and Canada and around the
world as we fill out the cards. The first line says I love Jesus and the truth more than the
traditions of men. If tonight you love Jesus and his truth more than the traditions of men, you
want to follow Jesus check the first box. The second box says I want to come out of Babylon and
faithfully keep all of God's commandments. If you recognize that God has a sign that a message
is going out to the world to worship the Creator in the last days check the second box. The third
box says I'd like to be baptized soon. If you have never been baptized as an adult believer as a
symbol of your accepting Christ and you love him enough to follow him check that box. You
would like to be baptized soon. But maybe, just maybe, you were baptized by immersion once
and drifted away. God is calling you to come back. These are the last days. These are the final
days of earth's history. And Jesus is calling you, you've drifted enough five years, ten years,
fifteen years, God says I want to you come back. Where is said I would like to be baptized you
put rebaptized. You may be a lovely Baptist or Pentecostal Christian, you may have been
baptized by immersion but you see the truth. You know tonight you've been drinking the wine of
Babylon in the Sunday worship, you've been drinking the wine of Babylon in the immortality of
the soul. You didn't understand it but you do tonight. You personally feel that you want to be
rebaptized, not because you didn't know Jesus, but because you want to be washed of the errors
that you accepted in the past and want to come up and start anew keeping God's word, check that
box. Listen as Walter sings quietly. I'm going to bow my head and pray and let the holy spirit
touch you as you read your card and fill it out just now as Walter sings.
Tonight in the quietness would you like to take your card and put it in the bucket as the ushers
pass it across? If you need a moment to fill it out, write your name, you phone number, your
address, your city and zip, are you a church member, yes or no. What denomination. When we
make a decision to follow God, even if it means stepping outs alone, even if it means a sacrifice,
Christ promises to be with us. He promises to stand by our side. And tonight we're going to
collect the cards. And the ushers are going to bring them forward. And God knows every name.
And God knows what you have marked. And God knows the challenges that you'll face in
carrying out this decision. But God himself will give you the courage. God himself will give you
the hope. God himself will give you the strength to follow him. When we make a decision to
follow Christ we're not on our own. We're not by ourselves. He's there by our side to strengthen,
to give us power. Just now our ushers, are bringing our cards forward. If you need a moment to
complete filling it out, certainly do that. But God knows every name. He knows your
circumstances. He knows your joys and your sorrows. He knows your heartache and your
disappointment. If are you facing persecution in your home God knows that. If you made a
decision to follow Christ and have lost your job, God knows that. If you're facing problems in
your life because of this decision, if there are economic difficulties, God knows that. Whatever
the problem is, God knows. And the Bible says there is no temptation taken us but is common to

12. man, but God is faithful and will with that test make a way of escape. God's power is stronger
than your trial. Let's pray.
Father in heaven, these cards represent the decisions of our hearts. They represent the
commitment of our minds. Father, we've made a decision to follow you. But we're too weak to
carry it out. And we know only the living Christ can give us the power to do what in our hearts
we know to be right. And so Lord, thank you that you'll put your arms around us, and thank you
that you whisper encouragement in our ear. And thank you that when we stumble you pick us up
because we're looking to Jesus, the author, the finisher of our faith. In Christ's name, amen.