And BEFORE the elders.—The prophecies. In all that we do we are pointing to the prophecies and fulfilling them. How often it was said of our Lord Jesus, that He said or did this or that “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the mouth of” one of the Prophets.
And no man could learn that song but the 144,000.—“Nothing is more manifest than that it is necessary to be somewhat of an ‘overcomer’ of the world and its spirit which pervades nominal Christendom, ere any would have the courage to sing this song—to declare before men the lengths, breadths, heights and depths of the goodness and grace of the Divine Plan, of which Jesus and His Sacrifice are the center. To all others ‘the fear of man bringeth a snare,’ and stoppeth their mouths from speaking ‘forth the praise of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.’ ‘But the people that do know their God [His Character and Plan] shall be valiant and do exploits,’ and like the Apostles of old will feel and say. ‘Whether it be right to obey God or men, judge ye; but we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard,’—Dan. 11:32; Acts 4:19, 20.”—Z. '00-37.
Which were redeemed from the earth.—Agorazo, acquired at the forum.—E. 443, 429.
14:4. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins.—“All Bible exponents of the Protestant kind recognize there are two Women especially mentioned in Revelation; the one the true Woman, the Bride class, the other the false Woman; and Protestants in general understand that false Woman to represent the papacy. Then again other Protestants understand that the Scriptures which refer to the mother and daughters refer to the papacy, and these denominational daughters, or systems, which sprang from her, and have more or less of her nature, disposition and characteristics. The Bible proposition is that the Church is a Virgin Church; viz.: not united to the world at all, and that this is the error that was made by the early Church in leaving Christ [pg 219] as the prospective Bridegroom and becoming united with the nation of Rome. This constituted an illicit union; for as the Bride of Christ she had no right whatever to be associated with any earthly dominion; therefore in becoming associated with the Roman Emperor she lost her standing. We are to remember that this word ‘harlotry’ as used in Revelation is merely a symbolical term; there is nothing more than that to be understood. God speaks of some of His children as being in Babylon. Babylon is the name for the mother, the papal system, and the daughters also have the same name. It means confusion, mixture and improper relationship. Now then some are in Babylon and not of Babylon, just the same as the children of Israel were carried captive into Babylon, but they were not Babylonians. And in due time God sent forth the Message to all Natural Israel that if those who had been carried in captivity into Babylon desired to return to the Lord their God, and to the Land of Promise, they might do so. Cyrus gave that decree, you remember, and many of them did return.
“No one is called out of Babylon until he hears the Lord's voice. So you and I may have been in Babylon for years and not have had any responsibility or any impurity; we were not defiled, because we did not know any better. But He says, ‘Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins.’ That implies that you are not yet partakers of her sins; you are My people, in her, but not yet partakers. I was not responsible for what was in my head from childhood; and God did not hold me responsible; nor you, nor anyone else; but after we come to see the great errors which are taught by Babylon's system then we are responsible. We have said things about our Heavenly Father that we would be ashamed to say about ourselves or of our earthly parents.
“We have said He created our world of mankind and knew what He was doing, had full power and full wisdom, and intended from the beginning to damn nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand, and to have them roast through all eternity; and that He made fireproof devils to handle them; that He created a great place called hell in which all of this diabolical work was going on. No honorable man would treat a poor rat that way—predestinate the rat before it was born, foreordain it to eternal torture. And now then after we once see that this doctrine is blasphemy against God, after we once see that it was evidently instigated by our great Adversary, the Devil—after we once see what an awful thing it is—if then we wish to uphold earthly systems and give our lives, [pg 220] strength, talents and means, to upholding these diabolical teachings, then we are worse than any others there; we are the worst of them all. What right has any man to stay inside of a denomination and deny the teachings of that denomination? He is branding himself as a fraud, professing to believe what he knows he does not believe, claiming to teach what he knows he should not teach; or, on the other hand, teaching that which he knows is wrong, and professing that which he does not believe at all. The whole matter is wrong; such are defiled by the Women.
“But those who come out when they see the right and wrong on the question, who take their stand for right, they are delivering their souls from Babylon. ‘Flee out of Babylon, saith the Lord; deliver every man his soul.’ Now no one is responsible to flee out unless he sees that it is Babylon, but the very suggestion that it is Babylon to every honest person means that he should make an investigation, and a thorough one, to know whether or not he is in Babylon. If he says, ‘Well, God's voice says “flee out of Babylon,” and I believe that the system is Babylon, but I do not wish to look into it for fear I find it true,’ that means he is dishonest with himself; he is defiling himself. There is only one way of being thoroughly honest, and that is to be honest.” (Pastor Russell.) “That the words can only be understood spiritually seems to follow from the whole tone of Apocalyptic symbolism:—see the mention of the Bridegroom and the Bride, of the Harlot and her fornications. Elsewhere we have the language of Ps. 45, of the Canticles, of the Book of Hosea, above all of 2 Cor. 11:2:—‘I have espoused you to one Husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.’ ”—Cook.
[These are they which] THOSE WHO follow The Lamb.—On this side of the veil.
Whithersoever He goeth.—Those who fail to “Walk in the light as He is in the light” find sooner or later that they “walk in darkness” for the light goes on and leaves them.—John 1:6, 7; Prov. 4:18.
These were redeemed from among men.—They are a separate class, “from among” men. “The thought is that of public purchase; and all the other uses of this word agorazo, throughout the New Testament, emphatically support a most commercial signification. We call especial attention to the signification of this word, because the tendency to deny that there was a purchase of our race effected by a price given for man's release from the ‘curse’ is prevalent and a growing one—very subversive of the true faith, once delivered to the saints.”—E. 443, 430.