The Third Angel’s Message.
By Uriah Smith
EXPLANATION OF THE BEAST.
The symbols introduced in this message first demand explanation. Foremost among these stands the beast against the worship of which we are so solemnly warned. Rev. 14:9. It is introduced as something with which the reader is supposed to be familiar; and properly so; for it is fully explained in the preceding line of prophecy. In the first verse of the previous chapter a power is introduced under the title of “a beast.” It is thereafter in the same chapter called eleven times “the beast.” To that beast worship is offered. Verse 12. To that beast an image is made. Verse 14. That beast has a mark which is enforced upon the people. Verses 16, 17. In the third message of Rev. 14, it is introduced in the same manner: “the beast;” and with it, in unmistakable terms, are associated the worship, the image, and the mark: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark.” The beast of this message is, therefore, the one introduced in Rev. 13:1, and called “the beast” through the remainder of that chapter. If then, we can ascertain what power is intended by this symbol, we have an explanation of so much of the third angel’s message. This beast is a symbol of the papacy. Its connection with the “dragon,” of chapter 12, and its identity with the “little horn” which came up among the ten horns of the fourth beast mentioned in the 7th chapter of Daniel’s prophecy, prove this. The dragon gave to this beast his seat and power and great authority. The dragon represents Rome while the religion of the empire was pagan; for it was Pagan Rome, which at the opening of the Christian dispensation stood before the woman, the church, to devour, to put to death, her child, Christ in the flesh, as soon as he should be born. Rev. 12:4. Herod, a governor holding his office under the jurisdiction of Rome, which then ruled over all the earth, Luke 2:1, attempted this, Matt. 2:1–16; but Christ was delivered out of his hand. Subsequently he was caught up to God and to his throne, and is soon to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Verse 5. During the second, third, fourth, and fifth centuries of the Christian era, next to the eagle, a dragon, painted red, as if in response to the prophecy itself, was the principal standard of the Roman legions. The application of this symbol to Pagan Rome is so uniform among commentators that it need not detain us longer. The next symbol to engage our attention is the leopard beast of chapter 13, to which the dragon gives his seat, his power, and great authority. It would be sufficient on this point to show to what power the dragon, Pagan Rome, transferred its seat and gave its power. The seat of any government is certainly its capital city. The city of Rome was the dragon’s seat. But in A.D. 330, Constantine transferred the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople; and Rome was given up—to what? To decay, desolation, and ruin? No; but to become far more celebrated than it had ever before been, not as the seat of pagan emperors, but as the city of St. Peter’s successors, the seat of a spiritual hierarchy which was not only to become more powerful than political princes, but through the magic of its fatal sorcery was to exercise dominion over the kings of the earth. Thus was Rome given to the papacy; and the decree of Justinian, issued in 533, and carried into effect in 538, constituting the pope the head of all the churches and the corrector of heretics, was the investing of the papacy with that power and authority which the prophet foresaw. It is very evident, therefore, that this beast is a symbol of the papacy. But there are other considerations which prove this. This beast has the body of a leopard, the mouth of a lion, and the feet of a bear; features which show it to be some power that succeeded those three beasts of Daniel’s prophecy, and retained some of the characteristics of them all. Rome was the only power which fulfilled these specifications. But this is not Rome in its first, or pagan form; for then it was represented by the dragon. This symbol represents Rome after paganism had given way to another form of religion; but then it was papal; for Rome has presented only these two great phases, the pagan and papal. But what most clearly shows that this beast represents the papacy is its identity with the little horn of the fourth beast of Daniel 7, which horn all Protestants agree in applying to the papal power. 1. The chronology of the leopard beast and the little horn is the same. The little horn arises after the great and terrible beast, which represents Rome in its first or pagan form, is fully developed, and divided into ten parts as represented by the ten horns. Dan. 7:24. The leopard beast succeeds the dragon, which also represents Rome in its pagan form. These powers appear therefore upon the stage of action at the same time. 2. They have the same location. The little horn plucked up three horns to make way for itself. The last of these, the Gothic horn, was plucked up when the Goths were driven from Rome in 538, and the city was left in the hands of the little horn, which has ever since held it as the seat of its power. To the leopard beast also, the dragon gave its seat, the city of Rome. They therefore occupy the same location. 3. They have the same character. The little horn is a blasphemous power; for it speaks great words against the Most High. Dan. 7:25. The leopard beast also is a blasphemous power; for it bears upon its head the name of blasphemy; it has a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and he opens his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven. Rev. 13:1, 5, 6. 4. They do the same work. The little horn by a long and heartless course of oppression against the saints of the Most High, wears them out; and they are given into his hand. Dan. 7:25. He makes war against them and prevails. Verse 21. The leopard beast also makes war upon the saints and overcomes them. Rev. 13:7. 5. They continue the same length of time. Power was given to the little horn to continue a “time and times, and the dividing of time.” Dan. 7:25. A time in Scripture phraseology is one year. Dan. 4:25. (The “seven times” of Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation, Josephus informs us, were seven years.) Times, that is two times, the least that can be expressed by the plural, would be two years more; and the dividing of time, or half a time, half a year; making in all, three years and a half. To the leopard beast power was also given to continue forty-two months, which, at twelve months to the year, give us again just three years and a half. And this being prophetic time, a day for a year (Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6), and there being according to Scripture reckoning thirty days to a month, or three hundred and sixty days to a year (Gen. 7:11; 8:4), we have in each case twelve hundred and sixty years, for the continuance of the little horn and the leopard beast. 6. They meet the same overthrow. At the end of the time, times and a half, the dominion of the little horn was to be taken away. Dan. 7:26. At the end of the forty-two months, the same length of time, the leopard beast was also to be slain, politically, with the sword, and go into captivity. Rev. 13:3, 10. These are points which prove not merely similarity, but identity. For whenever two symbols, as in this instance, represent powers that come upon the stage of action at the same time, occupy the same territory, maintain the same character, do the same work, continue the same length of time, and meet the same fate, those two symbols must represent one and the same power. And in all these particulars there is, as we have seen, the most exact coincidence between the little horn of the fourth beast of Dan. 7, and the leopard beast of Rev. 13; and all are fulfilled by one power, and that is the papacy. Thus:— 1. The papacy succeeded to the pagan form of the Roman empire. 2. It has, ever since it was first established, occupied the seat of the dragon, the city of Rome, building for itself such a sanctuary, St. Peter’s, as the world nowhere else beholds. 3. It is a blasphemous power, speaking the most presumptuous words it is possible for mortal lips to utter against the Most High. 4. It has worn out the saints, the Religious Encyclopedia estimating that the lives of fifty millions of Christians have been quenched in blood by its merciless implements of torture. 5. It continued a time, times and a half, or forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty years. Commencing in 538, when the decree of Justinian in behalf of papal supremacy was first made effectual by the overthrow of the Goths, the papacy enjoyed a period of uninterrupted supremacy for just twelve hundred and sixty years, till the year 1798. 6. Then its power was temporarily overthrown and its influence permanently crippled by the French. Can any one doubt that the papacy is the power in question? Is not the application of this symbol established beyond the possibility of refutation? If this is so, the third angel’s message warns us against the worship of the papal power. And are men now in such danger of worshiping that power that a special warning from Heaven is demanded against it? We shall see when we come to consider what that worship is and how it is rendered. U. S.