The Dragon Voice and Its Development
By Milton C. Wilcox
Forces That Are Working to Reinstate the Cruelties of Religious Persecution — The Prophecy of What the United States Will Do in This Respect This article completes the study of last week, of the dragon voice that is to speak in the United States. It is one of a series of articles by Elder Wilcox on the sevenfold sign of the end that may be seen in the prophecy concerning this country. His article next week will consider the “image” and the “mark” that the interesting prophecy declares will be made and enforced under the threat of death sentence. EDITOR. In our last study, we considered the first general specification of the two-horned beast of Revelation 13, under the development of the dragon voice and spirit. The two-horned beast was to exercise his authority as a persecutor in the presence of the ten-horned beast under the restored head. In other words, the persecuting power or authority of this nation will be exercised in its own territory at the very time when the papal beast exercises his restored authority with the support of the European powers. 2. The next general specification is that the two-horned beast “maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose death stroke was healed.” Rev. 13:12. The word poieo, rendered “maketh” or “causeth,” is broad and elastic in its use. It means to make or do. The object of the beast is to do all that is implied, but it does not necessarily imply that he will have the authority or the power to compel it by law. See the use of the word in Col. 4:16, which simply means that the church at Colosse should send Paul’s letter to the church in Laodicea, and use their influence to secure its reading. In Acts 15:3, we read that a message of the apostles “caused great joy unto all the brethren.” That was the influence of the apostle’s report. So the two-horned beast will use his influence to cause all to worship the first beast, and his influence will be so great that it will result in that very thing. In other words, this nation, as she has, by the influence of her laws and her example of liberty, turned the world from tyranny and intolerance to freedom and tolerance, will by her apostasy in law and example turn the world to the worship of the recrudescent apostasy of the Dark Ages, and to homage and obedience to the teachings of the papacy. “Impossible,” you say? It ought to be impossible, but certain causes produce certain results. Let us study it further. 3. The turning of the world backward is not through the authority of arbitrary law. Arbitrary laws may be a result, but the power is that of deception. “And he doeth great signs, that he should even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men. And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who hath the stroke of the sword and lived.” Rev. 13:13, 14, A. R. V. We have not space to develop to any length this part of the prophecy. Suffice to say: a. The two-horned beast becomes an agent of the dragon, hence is himself deceived by the dragon before he becomes a deceiver of others; for the dragon is “the deceiver of the whole world.” Rev. 12:9. This nation will therefore fall under such deceptions as will make it an instrument of Satan in deceiving the world. b. We are told that Satan, in the last days, will work “with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish.” 2 Thess. 2:9, 10. There will not be a miracle wrought by Christ and His apostles and prophets but what will be counterfeited by the devil. His minions in the days of Elijah could not bring fire from heaven—or the sun, for they were sun worshipers; but in the last days, the false miracle will be wrought, and fire will come down out of heaven. See 1 Kings 18:20–38 for the ancient story. Then the sun worshipers failed; in these last days they will be, or seem to be, successful. This will be accomplished by the power of the devil working through spiritism in some of its various forms and aspects, aided by false science and deception. So we read of the “spirits of demons, working signs” (Rev. 16:14); of one of his agents so deceiving the people that he is called by them the “power of God which is called Great” (Acts 8:9–11); of others who in the last days will withstand the truth of God as James and Jambres, the Egyptian magicians, by their wonders withstood Moses (2 Tim. 3:8). “With all power and signs and lying wonders” will the devil work. More than this, the devil works “with all deceit of unrighteousness.” The deceit of unrighteousness is to make the unrighteousness appear like righteousness, error like truth. In other words: “Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light. It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness.” 2 Cor. 11:14, 15. So will this nation, deceived by the devil, herself become a deceiver of the nations, and enforce unrighteous decrees as righteous laws and ordinances, and the world will be deceived by her course. c. Those who fall under deception are ignorant of Satan’s devices. 2 Cor. 2:11. The awful deceptions of the last days swallow up those who receive “not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thess. 2:10–12. The danger of humanity does not lie in not knowing truth, but in not loving truth. He who hates truth, cannot learn it, cannot know it when it comes to him. He who loves truth, though he may be in intellectual error, has the spirit of truth, and ever comes to the light. John 3:15–20. “For the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” 2 Chron. 16:9. But America has departed from the truth. Protestant and Christian principles molded her beginning. She repudiated a union of church and state or of religion and the state. On the reverse side of her great seal was the all-seeing eye surrounded by light. Over it were the words, “Annuit coeptis,” “God favors the undertaking.” Her history was symbolized by an unfinished pyramid, on which were to be built other states, broad based in righteousness and liberty. Underneath was the legend, “Novus ordo seclorum,” “a new order [or series] of ages.” But the prophecy declares that back to the old order the nation will swing in its deceptions. In the beginning of our history as a nation, the Protestant churches, notably the Presbyterian and the Baptist, stood for liberty. They also stood for the Bible as the rule of faith. It was vital to them. It was so expressed in their articles of faith. Men believed in its great verities. These were proclaimed from the pulpit. The virgin birth of Jesus, the vicarious atonement, the resurrection of the body, the authority of the Bible, were foundation stones in the creeds of Christendom. The power was of Christ, not civil law. It was stated in our last that only uninterrupted, backslidden,155and apostate Christian churches clamor for religious legislation, desire the power of the state to enforce religious or moral duties. It is true that to no nation on earth have come the light, the privilege, the opportunity, that have come to this nation. She has had before her the evils of the union of church and state under which the Old World suffered for centuries. She could weigh with less prejudice the evil principles involved. In a purer and more self-sacrificing way the gospel came to her through devoted men that had fled the Old World for conscience’ sake. While other lands dreamed of tolerance, she found religious liberty. As never before, the gospel sowing prospered, till the strongest, most spiritual, most stalwart Christianity in the world was found in America. Here it was demonstrated that a living church not only needed no aid from the state, but in contrast with Europe, Christianity was herself a demonstration that union with the state was a curse to the church. God’s people receive light that they may let it shine and receive greater light. Every blessing demands enlargement in labor and sacrifice and vision, that God may give greater light and power. But the church—we speak of the Protestant churches as a whole—has failed, in these later days, to learn the lesson. It is lamentable but true that church members in general have departed from the simplicity and devotion which characterized Christianity a half century ago. Let the simple sad fact come home to the heart that the church is backslidden, worldly, unbelieving. She has lost faith in the great vicarious atonement, in the miraculous and miracle-working Christ, in His regenerating, resurrection power. She shuns the cross of travail of soul for men; she wants to save men en masse, by such civilizations as the great present war has proved hollow and worthless. In all this the church—by which we mean the great Protestant, orthodox churches in general—departed from the fundamentals of God’s book. She has minimized what God calls great, and magnified her own traditions. She is substituting human plans, social schemes, elaborate business machinery, and human devices, for God’s fundamentals of repentance and faith and conversion. She has substituted her human standard of moral law, with its religious day of tradition, for the Decalogue, with God’s holy day of His own appointment. Like pecking daws, she began her work on the story of God’s creation. Genesis was set aside. Deuteronomy, Christ’s arsenal against the devil’s temptations, was discarded. What men could not comprehend, was mythical. At last, even the words, the teaching, of Jesus, and the mighty miracles of the eternal Son of God, are questioned, and in the minds of leading higher critics, relegated to the limbo of exploded myths and traditions. We need not pause to prove these statements. They are obvious to the earnest, the thoughtful, the devoted, yes, even to the casual observer. With all this departure, there has come continual and increasing demand for religious and moral legislation. Instead of seeking union with Christ,—life union, for there is no other union,—the churches are seeking federation, with vital truth of God’s word suppressed, the federation revolving around traditional religious dogmas held in common. Proponents of Sunday laws and social schemes are lobbying in all our state legislatures, and in our national Congress. Legislators are implored, cajoled, threatened, if they do not yield to the politico-religious demands. All these demands would have been set aside by wise statesmen in the earlier history of the country, as they were by both houses of Congress in the years 1829, 1831. But the same spirit that possesses the churches has affected politicians, and principle is forgotten in self-serving politics. The federated mass of the church will swing the politicians. Churches and people in this condition, with no guidance from the word of God, adrift from the great principles of equality and freedom, are on the devil’s ground, where deception is easy. And the logical next step is a union of religion and the state, modeled, as far as may be, after the Old World politico-religious regime. Just what form it will take in detail, we know not; for the death stroke of the papal head of the beast is not yet wholly healed, and the image is to “the beast who hath the stroke of the sword and lived.” Rev. 13:14. We may think it will not come. Men who are working for it, will so declare, and in their deception, so believe. But the word of Him who has thus far infallibly told us the career and character of the two-horned beast, will not fail us here. He who loves God’s truth, and heeds His word, will not be deceived.