p. 86 | REVELATION 13 by Stephen N. Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 5, 1901

By Stephen N. Haskell

S. N. H.

“In chapter 13 is described another Beast, ‘like unto a leopard,’ to which the dragon gave ‘his power, and his seat, and great authority.’ This symbol, as most Protestants have believed, represents the papacy, which succeeded to the power and seat and authority once possessed by the ancient Roman Empire.” The ten horns denote ten kingdoms. The crowns upon their horns represent independent kingly power. The seven heads are explained in Rev. 17:9, 10. This Beast’s having the body of a leopard, feet of a bear, and mouth of a lion, shows the character

of the first three kingdoms of Daniel 7. Although their dominion was taken away, their lives were prolonged by being merged into the succeeding kingdom. Dan. 7:12.

“In the sixth century the papacy had become firmly established. Its seat of power was fixed in the imperial city, and the Bishop of Rome was declared to be the head over the entire Church. Paganism had given place to papacy. Constantine removed his capital to Constantinople in A. D. 330. The dragon had given to ‘the Beast’ his power, and his seat, and great authority. Now began the twelve hundred and sixty years mentioned in Daniel and Revelation. The forty-two months—thirty days to a month—is the same as the twelve hundred and sixty years. Here for centuries was fulfilled Luke 21:16, 17. This was the beginning of the Dark Ages. Persecution raged against the people of God. Christians were forced to yield their integrity, to bow to ceremonies contrary to the conviction of their own conscience, or to wear away their lives in dungeons, to suffer death by the rack, the fagots, of the headsman’s ax.”

These were the days of peril for the Church of Christ. The faithful standard bearers were few indeed. Though the truth was not left without witnesses, yet at times it seemed that error and superstition would wholly prevail, and true religion would be banished from the earth. The gospel was lost sight of, but the forms of religion were multiplied, and the people were burdened with rigorous exactions. The same spirit of hatred and opposition to the truth has inspired the enemies of God in every age, and the same vigilance and fidelity have been required in His servants. The words of Christ to the first disciples are applicable to His followers to the close of time: “What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”

The infliction of the deadly wound of one of its heads points to the abolition of the papacy, in A. D. 1798. At this time the pope was taken prisoner by Berthier, a French general, and put in prison, where he died the next year. But the prophecy says that the deadly wound was healed. This power will be revived, and will be active when Christ comes. Dan. 7:11, 21, 22; 2 Thess. 2:3-8; Rev. 19:20. “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life.”

“The prophecy of Revelation 13 also declares that the power represented by the Beast with the lamblike horns, shall cause the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the papacy,—there symbolized by the Beast ‘like unto a leopard.’ The Beast of two horns is also to say ‘to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an Image to the Beast;’ and, furthermore, it is to command all, ‘both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond,’ to receive the mark of the Beast. It has been shown that the United States is the power represented by the Beast with lamblike horns, that this prophecy will be fulfilled when the United States shall enforce Sunday, which some claim as the special acknowledgment of her supremacy.”

Again, in “Great Controversy,” page 439, in speaking of the Beast’s going into captivity in 1798: “At this point another symbol is introduced. Says the prophet, ‘I beheld another Beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb.’ Both the appearance of this Beast and the manner of its rise indicate that the nation which it represents is unlike those presented under the preceding symbols. The great kingdoms that have ruled the world were presented by the prophet Daniel as beasts of prey, rising when the ‘four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea.’ In Revelation 17 an angel explained that waters represent ‘peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.’ Winds are a symbol of strife. The four winds of heaven striving upon the great sea, represent the terrible scenes of conquest and revolution by which kingdoms have attained to power. But the Beast with lamblike horns was seen ‘coming up out of the earth.’ Instead of overthrowing other powers to establish itself, the nation thus represented must arise in territory previously unoccupied, and grow up gradually and peacefully.”

“What nation in the New World was in 1798 rising into power, giving promise of strength and greatness, and attracting the attention of the world? The application of the symbol admits of no question. One nation, and only one, meets the specification of this prophecy; it points unmistakably to the United States of America.” Such is the testimony of the Spirit of God upon the application of this prophecy. Again we read: “‘Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an Image to the Beast.’ Here is clearly presented a form of government in which the legislative power rests with the people,—a most striking evidence that the United States is the nation denoted in the prophecy. But what is the ‘Image to the Beast’? and how is it to be formed? The Image is made by the two-horned Beast, and is an Image to the first Beast. It is also called an Image of the Beast. . . . In order for the United States to form an Image of the Beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the State will also be employed by the Church to accomplish her own ends.” This to a large extent is being done to-day.

Two events are to occur before the second coming of Christ: (1) The United States will make a law in behalf of Sunday-keeping. But as nearly all the States already have a Sunday law, there will be no delay upon that point. “I saw that the two-horned Beast had a dragon’s mouth, and that this power was in his head, and that the decree would go out of his mouth;” (2) After such steps are taken, “the Catholics bid the Protestants to go forward and issue a decree that all who will not observe the first day of the week instead of the seventh day shall be slain. And the Catholics, whose numbers are large, will stand by the Protestants. The Catholics will give their power to the Image of the Beast, and the Protestants will work as their mother worked before them, to destroy the saints. But before their decree brings forth, or bears fruit, the saints will be delivered by the voice of God.” This is under the sixth plague. From a careful consideration of the present condition of things in this government, any one can see there is but a step between us and the ending of probation. There is no event that will tell the people of God when that will take place, as no man knows how much of this work referred to will be done after probation ends.

Spiritualism comes to the aid in this work, for it will work miracles to encourage faith and belief in the Beast and his Image. Miracles are wrought now, but how much of this work will be done in probationary time we can not tell. Again, in “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. V, page 712: “When our nation shall so abjure the principles of its government as to enact a Sunday law, Protestantism will in this act join hands with popery.” Again, on page 451: “On this battlefield comes the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error. . . . When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power; when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with Spiritualism; when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, that the end is near.” See “Great Controversy,” chapters 3 and 35.

The people of God will then be plunged into those scenes of affliction and distress which prophets have described as the time of Jacob’s trouble. The cries of the faithful, persecuted ones ascend to heaven. And as the blood of Abel cried from the ground, there are also voices crying from the martyrs’ graves, from the sepulchers of the sea, from mountain caverns, from convent vaults, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Rev. 6:10. Such are the scenes we are brought into at the close of this chapter.