THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE.
The Beast, in its rise, its time, and its place, is so clearly marked in the Scriptures that there can be no mistaking it by any one who will carefully study the Scriptures. And when the Scripture is clearly understood, as to its characteristics, its rise, its time, and its place, the intelligent study of the thing itself in its different phases is easy. In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul described that which, in other places, is set forth as the Beast, as follows: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God [“setting himself forth as God,” R. V.; “and gives it out that he is God,” German]. “Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” 2 Thess. 2:1–8. Remember this was written to the Thessalonians; and notice that he says, “Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?” Thus, when Paul was at Thessalonica, he had preached to them the things which are here written. Now, in Acts 17:1–3, we read of his visit to Thessalonica, thus: “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.” Notice that, in his preaching there, he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. The only Scriptures that were then in existence were what are now the Old Testament Scriptures. These, then, it was out of which Paul reasoned with the Thessalonians. And he says that, when he was there, he told the people about this “falling away,” and the man of sin being revealed,—“the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God,”—“the mystery of iniquity,” and “that Wicked,” “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” Where, then, in the Old Testament did he find scriptures from which to reason to the people concerning all this, by which he could tell them these things? Look at Daniel 8. After the prophet had seen in vision the ram, and the he goat with the notable horn, and the four notable horns that came up after that one fell, “out of one of them [one of the four] came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.” “It waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host,” “and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered.” Now the Word plainly declares that the ram represents Medo-Persia; and the rough goat, Grecia; and the great horn, the first king; and the four that succeeded it, the four divisions of the Grecian Empire after Alexander died. Then, in the latter time of the kingdom of these four, “when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes.” This great power, which followed Grecia, is none other than Rome, as all the world knows. And that power, as described in this scripture throughout, is Rome in all its phases, from beginning to end; from the entrance of ancient Rome upon the scene of the world's action, unto the end of the world, when “he shall be broken without hand.” For this breaking “without hand” is evidently that time and event referred to in the second chapter of Daniel, when a stone cut out “without hand,” smites the image on the feet, and then all the kingdoms of the world are dashed to pieces and swept out of the world, and the stone becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth—and that is the kingdom of God. This is further pictured, and this same ground is covered, in the seventh chapter of Daniel, where the fourth kingdom is described as “dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.” Then among these horns came up another little one, “before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” And this power continued until the judgment was set, and the books were opened. And, says the prophet, “I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.” No one can attentively read these two passages of scripture concerning Rome, in the eighth chapter and in the seventh chapter of Daniel, and compare them with the passage in 2 Thessalonians 2, without being able to see plainly that 2 Thessalonians 2 refers definitely to these passages in Daniel. And this makes it certain that it was these passages of Daniel from which Paul reasoned when he was at Thessalonica, when he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, and told them in words that which, later, he wrote in the passage here quoted from 2 Thessalonians 2, as to “the man of sin, the son of perdition,” “the mystery of iniquity,” and “that Wicked.” And notice particularly that in both the passages in Daniel, it is Rome, from its beginning to the end of the world, that is considered: it is Rome in both its phases, ancient and modern, that is described. The passage in the eighth chapter, in every feature, is applicable to modern Rome as well as to ancient Rome, and in some of its features is applicable only to modern Rome. The passage in the seventh chapter is first Rome in its pagan form, under the symbol of the great and terrible beast; then, after that fell, the subject is the rise of Rome, and its career, in its papal form, as the little horn. Yet, when it comes to the end of its career, and the time of its destruction, it is not said: I beheld until the horn was slain, and given to the burning flame; but “till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.” And this shows plainly that it is in essence, and in characteristics, the Beast that continues, under the form and phase described as “the little horn.” This feature is also discerned in the description in the eighth chapter, where it is under the symbol of a little horn, which waxes exceeding great, that the whole course of Rome, from the beginning to the end of the world, is sketched. In a former study, in considering Revelation 12 and 13, we found that the power there described as the Beast is that power which Satan uses in his wrath against the church, in the time in which the church is in the wilderness. This power which is “the Beast” succeeds the power which Satan used to destroy Christ as soon as he was born, and to persecute the church after Christ was caught up to God and to his throne. That power, as we plainly saw, was Rome as it stood in the time of Christ. And the power which succeeded Rome in that phase, by which Satan persecuted the church when she “fled into the wilderness”—this power, as all the world knows, is Rome in its second phase, which is papal Rome. And this power it is which is plainly declared by the Scripture to be “the Beast.” Therefore it is perfectly plain, by the Scriptures throughout, that the Beast is nothing else than the Papacy; and the making of the Beast is nothing but the making of the Papacy. Consequently, the study of the making of the Beast will have to be the study of the making of the Papacy. And it is necessary to study and to know the making of the Papacy, in order to be able to know the making of the Image of the Papacy, and to take warning and escape the worship of the Beast and his Image. Next week, therefore, the study of the Third Angel's Message will be, The Elements That Enter into the “Falling Away” out of Which Came the Beast.