“‘Babylon the great’ in the book of Revelation designates in a special sense, the united apostate religions at the close of time.... ‘Babylon the great’ is the name by which Inspiration refers to the great threefold religious union of the papacy, apostate Protestantism, and spiritism.... The term ‘Babylon’ refers to the organizations themselves and to their leaders, not so much to the members as such. The latter are referred to as ‘many waters.’ (Rev. 17:1, 15).” — The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, pp. 851, 852.

 “Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome.” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy,p. 588.

 In the Old Testament, the spirits of the dead played a major part in Babylonian religion. The Babylonians had a strong belief in the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. They believed at death the soul entered the spirit world. The concept of the immortal soul is foreign to the teachings of Scripture. The Jewish Encyclopedia clearly identifies the origin of the false idea of the immortality of the soul. “The belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is ... nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture.... The belief in the immortality of the soul came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principal exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strangely blended.” — Kaufmann Kohler, The Jewish Encyclopedia, “Immortality of the Soul,” (1906).

 1. Why is an understanding of the truth about death so critically important? What does it protect us from? Why is it so comforting, too?
 2. Some of the devil’s deceptions are obvious, others more subtle. How can we avoid being deceived by either?
 3. In class, talk about the question, touched on in Sunday’s study, about those who do evil believing that they are following the will of God, as revealed in the Bible. How do we explain this? What role should the law of God play in the explanation?