The Last Reformation

by F. G. Smith

I'll never go back again."

The prophecies already cited make clear a mighty religious movement before the end of time, a movement designed to triumph over the apostasy. Since the apostasy was twofold in its nature, comprehending a corruption of evangelical faith and the development of ecclesiasticism, it is evident that the Last Reformation must both restore primitive truth and eliminate ecclesiasticism, thus bringing back to the world the original conception of the church as embracing the whole divine family under the direct moral and spiritual dominion of Christ. It is also evident from the prophecies that this is to be accomplished by literally forsaking the systems of man-rule just as ancient Israel was restored after the captivity by God's people leaving Babylon and coming home to Zion.

Zion represents the church in its primitive, unified condition under the government and law of Christ alone. Babylon represents a foreign rule and another law. The two systems are fundamentally different. This difference was true in the type and must therefore be true in the antitype. In the old days of Israel's glory foreigners visited Jerusalem, but their presence in the city of God did not make them Israelites. And at one time the people of God were carried into captivity in Babylon, but their presence in that foreign, heathen city did not make them Babylonians.

This distinction is also clear in the antitypical relation. We do not have to go to prophetic symbols to find in the New Testament clear predictions of the rise of a false Christianity in opposition to the true. They stand out in marked contrast in the prophecy. On the one side there is a false religious system described as a beast power reigning. On the other side is placed in contrast a company that have gotten the victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark, and they stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. The mother of harlots appears, but in contrast therewith is seen a pure woman, the bride of Christ. In contrast with Babylon we have Zion.

The sect system, wherein ecclesiasticism reigns and where the full truth in all its purity can not be taught and practised, does not represent the true church, but Babylon. The system is foreign. It contains, however, many who are not Babylonians but children of the divine family—Israelites indeed. The awful judgments of God pronounced against Babylon are directed against the false system itself and the real beast-worshipers it contains, not against the true people of God, who love their Lord and are willing to walk in the light of his Word as fast as they are able to understand it. When we consider that this sect system has been the means of deceiving millions—millions who will come up in that last day and plead their religious profession, only to hear the awful words, "Depart from me, I never knew you"—when we consider, I say, these evil results, we can not but repeat the words of the prophecy concerning the overthrow of Babylon, "True and righteous are His judgments." The commandment of God is, "Come out of her, MY PEOPLE, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and THAT YE RECEIVE NOT OF HER PLAGUES."

The movement to ignore sect lines and bring the true people of God into unity is not based upon a mere interpretation of prophecy, however. The necessity of such a work is being felt by the true people of God everywhere, even those who make no particular claims to knowledge of prophetic interpretation. Knowledge that the ecclesiastical systems of the present day do not represent the real church outlined in the New Testament is all that is absolutely necessary in order to stir the heart for reformatory action. Departure from the truth of God carries with it responsibility on the part of all those who become awakened to that departure—responsibility to return to the Bible standard. A final reformation there must and would be even if it had never been predicted by the prophets of old; for Christ, the great ever-living head of the church, would at the proper time pour out upon his servants the spirit of judgment against all unscriptural systems and forms of worship and demand the restoration of the pure church of the morning time of our era.

The future prospect

The work of God in the latter days is to be more extensive, however, than simply calling God's people together from their scattered condition in sect Babylon. There are indications in the prophecy already cited that the "everlasting gospel" is to be carried to the ends of the earth. The movement is to be world-wide. In our consideration of parallel prophecies in Daniel, we saw that the kingdom is represented in two phases—first as a stone, under which symbol it broke down the kingdoms of heathen darkness; and then as a mountain, when it is to fill the whole earth. And again, after describing the 1,260-year reign of the papacy, Daniel said: "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey HIM" (Dan. 7: 26, 27).

There is abundant evidence to be seen by the careful observer that there are now at work in the Christian world forces that are preparing for great changes. Christian charity is refusing to be confined by sectarian barriers. The Christian consciousness is becoming aroused to the evils of sectarianism and sectarian systems as it has never been aroused in any past age. There is a longing among spiritual people everywhere to escape from the blighting effect of a divided Christianity. Evangelism is becoming more and more detached from organized denominations, and the denominational lines are being ignored in a way that would have astonished the people of a century ago. Numerous attempts are being made to unite the various denominations on the mission fields and in the homeland. While many of these efforts are mere blind groping for a way out of the fogs of sectarianism, they show unmistakably that back of and underlying all these efforts is a mighty force slowly but surely gathering power that (so far as God's true people are concerned) shall in time rise to break once for all the rigorous reign of human ecclesiasticism and reestablish in power and glory the simple, primitive theocracy, where Christ shall be exalted as the true and only ruler of his people.

Ecclesiasticism, however, dies hard. In fact, it is scarcely correct to say that it will die at all. The churches of men are largely made up of worldly-minded professors who know not the birth and life of the Spirit. To such the church will never appear as anything different from an institution organized and governed after the pattern of the kingdoms of this world. According to the prophecy, God's true saints will die to ecclesiasticism by forsaking the sect system, but the rule of human churchly power will go right on until the end of time. Furthermore, we may expect the contrast and the conflict between these two forces to become more pronounced as the years go by. While the Revelation represents the call of God's people out of Babylon as the movement that again brings into prominence the "bride," the true church (chap. 19:1-9), it also reveals the fact that there will be another great movement in opposition to the truth.