THE SABBATH SCHOOL

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 29, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 26.

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THE SABBATH SCHOOL

INTERNATIONAL SERIES

LESSON II.—A TERRIBLE PERSECUTOR.

(Study for Sabbath, July 9.)

QUESTIONS.

1. WHAT did the prophet behold arising out of the sea? Rev. 13:1.

2. Describe the beast. Rev. 13:1, 2. Note 1.

3. How many points of identity can you find between this beast and the little horn of Daniel 7? Compare carefully Rev. 13:2, 5, 6, 7, 10 with Dan. 7:8, 20, 21, 25, 26.

4. How many worship him? Rev. 13:8.

5. With what words do the people worship the beast? What else do they worship? Rev. 13:4. Of what is the dragon a symbol?

6. Who gave to the beast his seat? Verse 2. Note 2.

7. Against whom does he speak? Rev. 13:6. From whence do words proceed? Matt. 12:35, 36. What, then, is this professedly Christian power at heart?

8. What does he do to the saints? Rev. 13:7.

9. How long was the supremacy of the beast as a persecuting power to continue? Rev. 13:5; 12:6, 14.

10. What was then to occur? Was the wound to be healed? Rev. 13:3, 10. Note 3.

11. Will this power be permitted to persecute in the last days? Rev. 12:17.

12. What admonition is given to the church for this time? Rev. 13:9.

13. Amid the moral darkness, how are the true people of God referred to? Verse 10, last part; Rev. 14:12.

NOTES.

1. The description given of this beast indicates that the characteristics of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome have been inherited by the Papacy, of which this symbol is a representative. Tho professedly Christian, it wages a relentless warfare against truth and righteousness. It continues till the end, and goes alive into the lake of fire. Rev. 19:20; Dan. 7:26.

2. The dragon is a symbol of Satan. Satan offered his seat and great authority to Christ once when He was here on earth. Luke 4:5-7. The price which he placed upon it was that Jesus should bow down and worship him. It is not reasonable to suppose that he has transferred it to the beast for anything less; so that power is, therefore, the servant, full and complete, of the prince of darkness, pledged to bow down and do obeisance to him. Any homage, therefore, that is rendered to this ecclesiastical power, is, in reality, paying homage to the evil power by which sin came into the world.

3. This wound was inflicted when the beast went into captivity in A. D. 1798, when the French general, Berthier, entered Rome and took the pope prisoner, and abolished for a time the papal government—a deadly wound indeed.