The angel of God says in Revelation 18, “Come out of her [Babylon], my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities” ( Revelation 18:4, 5). In this passage, the Lord is saying that Babylon (the fallen apostate church) is going to be destroyed, not reformed. She will become drunk with her wine (identified as false doctrine in Revelation 18:5, 6). And it is for this reason that He calls His people out.
Almost till the very close of time, millions of God’s children who have not before heard the call to come out of mystical Babylon, will be called out. These ones love the Lord sincerely and are obedient to the limited light they have but once they see more light they will obey immediately and leave their fallen churches to follow Jesus. Jesus calls His children that are in Babylon “my people.”
About these people, Jesus says, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:16, 27). Jesus knows these children and promises that they will hear and recognize His voice and come out to safety.
This angel unites with the third angel of Revelation 14:9–11 in the proclamation of God’s final message to the world and his message is a repetition of that of the second angel of Revelation 14:8, “And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
Those the stay in Babylon will be hit by its plague. The nature of these “plagues” is set forth briefly in Revelation chs. 16:19; 17:16; 18:8, 21. The punishment of Babylon, the united apostate religious organizations of earth, takes place under the seventh plague (chs. 16:19; 17:1, 5, 16). The sixth plague prepares the way for that punishment.
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
