Lesson 58 Explore 2: Keep Busy During the Last of “the Last Days” | Paragraphs 16-18
16. Read Revelation 18.2: And he cried out with a strong voice, saying: “She has fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen, and she has become a dwelling place of demons and a place where every unclean spirit and every unclean and hated bird lurks!
Read Revelation 18.4, 5: And I heard another voice out of heaven say: “Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues. For her sins have massed together clear up to heaven, and God has called her acts of injustice to mind.
Read Revelation 18.8: That is why in one day her plagues will come, death and mourning and famine, and she will be completely burned with fire, because Jehovah God, who judged her, is strong.
These verses identify something else that Jehovah expects of his worshippers. All true Christians must maintain a clear distinction between themselves and Babylon the Great. Before learning the truth, a Bible student may have been a member of a false religion. He may have attended its religious services and shared in its activities. Or he may have contributed money to such an organization. Before a Bible student can be approved as an unbaptized publisher, he must break all ties with false religion. He should submit a letter of resignation or otherwise completely sever his membership in his former church and in any other organization that has ties to Babylon the Great.
17. A true Christian must make sure that his secular employment has nothing to do with Babylon the Great.
(2 Corinthians 6.14-17: Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness? Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? And what agreement does God’s temple have with idols? For we are a temple of a living God; just as God said: “I will reside among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” “‘Therefore, get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing’”; “‘and I will take you in.’”)
For example, he would not be an employee of a church. Furthermore, a Christian who is employed by some other business would not want to do extensive work at a facility that promotes false worship. And if he owns a business, he would certainly not bid on a job or do contract work for any part of Babylon the Great. Why do we take such a firm stand? Because we do not want to share in the works and sins of religious organizations that are unclean in God’s eyes.-
(Isaiah 52.11: Turn away, turn away, get out of there, touch nothing unclean! Get out from the midst of her, keep yourselves clean, You who are carrying the utensils of Jehovah.)
18. Years ago, a self-employed elder was asked by a contractor to accept a small carpentry job at a church in the town where the brother lived. The contractor knew that the brother had always said he would not work on churches. But this time the contractor was desperate to find someone for the job. Even so, the brother stuck to Bible principles and declined the work. The next week, the local newspaper showed a photograph of another carpenter attaching a cross to the church. If our brother had compromised his stand, it could have been his picture in the paper. Think of how damaging that would have been to his reputation among his fellow Christians! Think, too, of how Jehovah would have felt.
[End of reference.]