“You Must . . . Leave Her”

“Get out of her, my people,” the Bible long ago warned. Out of what? “Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.” (Rev. 17:5; 18:4) Why get out of Babylon? “For her sins have massed together clear up to heaven, and God has called her acts of injustice to mind.” (Rev. 18:5)

What, therefore, were readers of the Watch Tower encouraged to do? Russell wrote: “If the church with which you are connected, lives in adulterous union with the world, you must, if you would keep your garments white, leave her.” Russell and his associates did not then understand the full range of the influence of Babylon the Great. Nevertheless, readers of the Watch Tower were urged to separate themselves from church systems that were corrupt and worldly.—John 18:36.