Time is swiftly coming to a close, and the dawning of eternity looms nearer. The satanic forces of hell’s citadel are ramping up for the final push as the lines are being drawn for the final conflict. Despite the fogs of confusion and the winds of ecumenism driven by doctrines subject to the interpretations of men, there are only two sides, and every soul will be found on one or the other. The powers of Gog and Magog surround the camp of the saints for the grand finale in the war of good versus evil, or the Kingdom of God versus the Kingdom of Satan. Ultimately, the days of indecisiveness are finished, and God will render a decision in the great valley. While many are languishing in their stupor and slumber, Satan is unleashing the greatest deception ever known to the world. Every devilish spirit ever imposed on humankind down through the ages of time is now flooding the earth and rendering many hopelessly and eternally lost. As a result, eternal decisions are being made, and only a very small remnant will escape the damnation of hell.
In every period of the gospel day Satan countered the church of God in various forms. Beginning in the morning time, Paganism opposed the church with vehement force doing its best to stamp out Christianity by intense persecution through political powers. However, the church of God emerged the victor over Paganism, and Satan was left to work through a different guise, and he chose a religious garb. After the binding of Paganism, the dark and devilish power of Catholicism arose and took the church of God into a period of extreme darkness. For over a thousand years the enemy of souls worked through the godless system of papal night. However, light broke through in the restoration of Justification and Sanctification. Yet many of the movements that initially proclaimed the truths of God’s eternal word began to succumb to a system of religion, thus making an image to the beast of Catholicism. This is known as Protestantism. While countless souls were groping in the clouds of confusion due to the hundreds of denominations promoting doctrines and creeds of men, a call began to sound forth calling men and women to the glorious one church. Accordingly, this period of time is commonly known as the sixth seal, and the burden of this period must be perceived in order to comprehend the burden of the present dispensation.
When the sixth seal brethren were calling folks out of Babylon to the Church of God, they were not calling out sinners. Scripturally speaking, God would not ask his ministry to call sinners out of a religious system to his Church. Sinners are called to repentance, always. Revelation 18:4, “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins…” Here the scripture shows clearly that God’s people, “my people,” were down in Babylon and needed to come out, or they would find themselves guilty of sin. Evidently, Warner and his contemporaries were calling God’s people out of the wreckage of Babylon: people who were justified and sanctified but not unified with all of God’s people. The message of the sixth seal was to convince saints of God who were not guilty of sin and were sanctified by the Spirit of God with all carnality eradicated to see the necessity of forsaking their religious persuasions, many of them holding to lifelong persuasions, and join the people of God on Mt. Zion. Sadly, many died in their religious sects because they were not willing to flee their Babylonian comforts. The majority of religious sects once held the standards of holiness by teaching deliverance from sin and the carnal nature, by inspiring faith to trust God for the healing of their bodies from the Divine, by teaching modesty and refraining from worldly attire, by standing on the principle that marriage is a vow to God that should never be torn asunder by man, and by proclaiming many other truths. And while a number were still preaching and teaching some of those very same standards without deviation, the message of unity went forth, and those who refused to walk in the light of that message were lost.
Often when a person thinks of Babylon he or she recalls a number of religious denominations. Unquestionably, those institutions are not the people of God and can rightfully be labeled Babylon. However, many do not perceive that the brethren of the sixth seal were to inspire men and women who were holy to forsake their denominational ties. When measured under that light, the deception found in those sects becomes profoundly greater. Justification could be found in the fact that sin is not being committed, the work of sanctification experienced, and so on. How could there be eternal ramifications from simply not forsaking a church that teaches many doctrines and standards correctly? Here the deceptive forces of Satan are made evident. Essentially, the light of God moved on, and those who trailed behind were left with a self-justification that resulted in a self-deception. Numberless souls were left to crumble in Babylonian folly and rendered themselves fighting against God.
As time moved onward, the foes of that time became outright sinners, and the proclamation of any standard of holiness fell away completely. Moreover, the sectarian churches of that time now boldly proclaim that living a holy life by the grace of God without falling to sin is an utter impossibility. The sounding of the message on sanctification, divine healing, modest apparel, marriage, the judgment, heaven and hell, and many other essential doctrines is most assuredly missing. If a soul coming out of such a religious circle were to be saved today, then it is probable, if not unquestionable, that he or she would simply have to repent of sin and be saved, just as any other unprofessing sinner would have to do. Essentially, there is not enough truth in rank Babylon to get a soul to a sound conversion anymore.
If the foes of the sixth seal can just be labeled outright sin today, in need of deliverance just as the common sinner, then what is the great foe of the church of God today? This is not to say the church of God simply ignores the foes of yesteryear and dismisses it. The message of holiness must still be sounded boldly, fearlessly, and broadly. However, that message is not a call to God’s people, but is rather a message to sinners. Where are God’s people that must be called out today? The people of God in need of a call out of Babylon today are dwelling in places called the Church of God