The Ecclesiastical Beast Loses Its Power to Oppress—Freedom Given the World as the Result—A Great Liberty-Loving Protestant Republic Arises—It Finally Degenerates, Speaks with the Dragon Voice, and Becomes a Persecutor
By Ross C. Porter
This is the first of two articles in which Elder Porter will present some of the prophecies showing that religious tyranny and despotism are again to arise. In the article this week, he deals especially with the prophecy. Next week he will give more attention to events that are tending in the direction of the usurpation of political power by the churches. Editor.
“AND I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.” Rev. 13:11.
This text follows the statement that the beast, the papacy, which had been leading into captivity and killing with the sword, must itself be led into captivity and killed with the sword. It was in 1798 A. D. that the papacy was led into captivity, as the result of the Reformation and of the pope’s being carried from Rome a captive into France, where the next year he died in exile. He who had been killing with the sword, saw his power broken with the sword. The chronology of the rise of the power here mentioned is definite, as it is to be seen coming up at the time when the temporal supremacy of the papacy was broken by the sword.
The Way Prepared for Protestant Republics
Long before this time, the way had been prepared in the world for the rise of Protestant republics. The great Protestant Reformation in Europe had reached its zenith in the sixteenth century, during which the national churches of Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland became separated from the Church of Rome. Also in Hungary and France large portions of the population were separated from the Catholic faith.
The causes leading to the Reformation were various. The most prominent were the corruption of the Church of Rome, and its apostasy from the word of God. Under these conditions, Wyclif in England, Huss and Jerome of Prague, arose early in the fifteenth century, with a decided protest against the misdoings of the papacy. In 1415, Huss, under promise of safe conduct, was betrayed and burned by the papacy. Thus Bohemia kindled afresh the fires of the Reformation. Soon after this, Reuchlin arose in Germany, and Erasmus in Holland, and gave a strong impetus to the spirit of reformation that was awakening in all parts of Europe.
In 1517, aroused by the sale of indulgences by Tetzel, a Dominican friar, Luther, who had but recently, by the Catholic Church, been created a doctor in the Holy Scriptures at the University of Wittenberg, seeing the evil influences of the system of indulgences upon his own flock, decided to raise his voice against it. “God willing,” he said, “I will beat a hole in his drum.”
He began the Reformation in Germany by posting his famous ninety-five theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg. Following this, the pope issued a bull against him, which Luther burned at one of the gates of Wittenberg, on December 18, 1520. Summoned to Worms, he was urged to retract. His reply was: “I neither can nor dare retract anything unless convinced by reason and Scripture. My conscience is captive to God’s word, and it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. There I take my stand. I can do no otherwise. So help me, God. Amen.”
He was not to be intimidated. He had staked his life on the success of the Reformation movement; and under the hand of God, the mighty power of the great Catholic apostasy was shaken to its foundations. Melanchthon came to the support of Luther, with his mild but mighty arguments in support of Protestant principles. Frederick, elector of Saxony, foreseeing the danger that confronted Luther, captured him on his route homeward from the diet of Spires in 1526, and confined him in the Wartburg for safety until the fury of the raging storm had passed. Under the indefatigable labors of Zwingli and his associates the supremacy of the papacy was abolished in Switzerland by a civil council held at Bern in 1528. In Poland, Holland, and other countries, the same work was rapidly gaining solid footing.
William of Orange and the Dutch Republic
The work of the Reformation found no more stanch and fearless support in any land than that given by the dauntless William, prince of Orange, which resulted, in the sixteenth century, in the change of the seven provinces of the Netherlands into the Dutch republic.
Hamilton in Scotland began to carry forward the movement, but his death in 1528 cut short this work. John Knox then became the leading spirit of the Reformation in Scotland. Cranmer and Latimer in England kept up the fires of the Reformation in that great empire. In France, Poland, and the Scandinavian countries, the spirit of the Reformation spread with the same earnestness that was seen in other countries. Europe was ablaze with the desire for civil and religious freedom, that came with the Reformation movement. The rupture between the pope and Henry VIII of England over his obtaining a divorce from his queen, augmented the forces that were soon to fulfil the prophetic forecasts of the captivity of the gigantic persecuting power which for centuries had led others into captivity.
The Reformation Established in the New World
Another event was likewise taking place in the New World, that was to play a great part in the development of civil and religious liberty. In 1620 the Mayflower landed the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts. Different reformed churches were established. Unfortunately they fell to persecuting those who differed from them in creed. Baptists and Quakers were the special objects of persecution. They were whipped through the streets at the tails of carts, banished beyond the bounds of civilization, and otherwise ill treated.
In the midst of these scenes in the American colonies, the question of taxation without representation became a subject of dispute. The break finally came when, under these grievances, on July 4, 1776, the declaration of American independence was signed by the representatives of the thirteen colonies. The war of the Revolution followed, but that was regarded by the colonies as a war of defense of their rights. In 1787 the United States constitution was framed. In 1789 it was ratified. Hence in 1798, when the papacy went into captivity, the United States government was just nine years old as a nation. At this point it is introduced into the prophecy. “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.” Rev. 13:10, 11. Just as the beast, the papacy, was led into captivity, and its supremacy broken by the sword of Europe, the pope was carried an exile from Rome into France. Then there was seen another beast “coming up.”
There was at that time no other nation rising but the American republic. The United States government was then in its infancy, and its history must determine whether it fulfils the specifications of the prophetic symbol of the two-horned beast, which was to be seen arising when the papal beast went into captivity.
Another Beast Seen Coming Up
The two-horned beast was to be “another beast.” Rev. 13:11. The United States government was strictly a nation separate from the papacy. In 1798 it was to be seen “coming up.” The United States was at that time just arising among the nations of earth as an independent government. Its wonderfully rapid growth fulfils all that is indicated in the expression “coming up.” Beginning its national history in 1778, the United States quickly became the most progressive country of the world.
It began its national career with 3,000,000 people. It now has 100,000,000. The wealth of the country in 1850 in round numbers was $7,000,000,000, in 1890 it was $65,000,000,000,3and a report in 1909 shows that the national wealth has grown to the enormous sum of $107,500,000,000. The same report shows the annual wealth production of farms to be $7,412,000,000. That was more than the entire wealth of the country half a century before.
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Surely the United States government fulfils the specifications of the new government that was seen in 1798 “coming up.” It was not only described as “coming up,” but as “coming up out of the earth.” The beast representing the papacy was seen coming up out of the sea. Rev. 13:1.
Comes from Unoccupied Territory
In Rev. 17:15 the symbol of water is explained to represent “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” In contrast to this, the nation symbolized by the two-horned beast is to come up out of the earth. That would suggest a previously unoccupied territory. The United States arose in territory not previously occupied by civilized nations. J. P. Thompson, LL. D., in a speech at the “Continental Dinner,” Westminster Palace Hotel, London, on July 4, 1876, said: “I am sick of that type of history that teaches our youth that the Alexanders and Cæsars, the Fredericks and Napoleons, are the great men who have made the world. It is with a sense of relief and refreshment that I turn to a nation whose birthday commemorates a great moral idea, a principle of ethics applied to political society—that government represents the whole people, for the equal good of all. No tide of battle marks this day; but itself marks the high-water line of heaving, surging humanity.”—“United States as a Nation,” pages 13, 14.
G. A. Townsend speaks of the United States as follows: “The mystery of her coming forth from vacancy.” “Like a silent seed we grew into empire.”—“The New World Compared with the Old,” pages 462, 635.
An Empire Emerging in Silence
A writer in the Dublin Nation spoke of the United States as a wonderful empire which was “emerging,” and “amid the silence of the earth daily adding to its power and pride.”
Thus the world has recognized the struggle which the United States government had at its birth, as being a struggle for the maintenance of the great moral principles involved in the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and not as the result of wars for conquest.
Had Two Horns Like a Lamb
Speaking further of the manner of the rise of this power, John says in the Revelation, “He had two horns like a lamb.” The goat and the ram of Daniel 8 had horns. In Daniel 7 some of the beasts had horns. The same is true in the symbol representing the papacy in the beginning of Revelation 13. In some of the foregoing symbols, a horn represents civil power; but in the case of the papacy, a horn represents ecclesiastical power. In this symbol, horns evidently represent the two leading principles for which the United States government has always stood—republicanism and Protestantism.
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
The Hon. J. A. Bingham, speaking of the object of the coming of those who sought the shores of this New World, said it was to found “what the world had not seen for ages, viz., a church without a pope, and a state without a king.” Both the Declaration of Independence and the United States constitution declare openly and unqualifiedly for civil equality and religious freedom. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are specially mentioned among the inalienable rights of man. Of religious freedom, article 1 of amendments of the United States constitution guarantees that Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; while article 6 of the constitution guards against any religious test as a qualification for office in the United States.
Accountable Alone to God for His Religion
George Washington, the first president of the United States, thus stated his views of these principles: “Every man who conducts himself as a good citizen is accountable alone to God for his religious faith, and should be protected in worshiping God according to the dictates of his own conscience.”
In 1830 the United States Senate adopted a report refusing to legislate in favor of Sunday observance, on the ground that it would be legislating on a religious subject, and would therefore be unconstitutional.
From that report the following extract is taken: “The framers of the constitution recognized the eternal principle that man’s relation to his God is above human legislation, and his right of conscience inalienable,” that is, untransferable. A man could transfer certain rights to delegates to act in his stead, as government officials; but his rights of conscience were personal rights, which could not be delegated to another.
It Stood for Two Great Lamblike Principles
It is plain, from these references to the Declaration of Independence, the United States constitution, and the utterances of the leading American statesmen of that time, that it was understood that the United States government stood for two great principles, civil and religious liberty, or republicanism and Protestantism. In further evidence of this view, there stands the fact that on the reverse side of the great seal of the United States government is stamped in Latin these words: “A new order of things.” Equality of rights to all people in civil and religious matters was a new order of things. The world had seen but little of this order of government. In contrast with the beast before it—the papacy—and imperial forms of government in the Old World, it stood as a new order of things. These two fundamental principles, republicanism and Protestantism, were certainly fittingly represented by the mild, lamblike horns of the symbol of Rev. 13:11.
Neither Affirm Nor Deny Religious Doctrine
The American principle of civil government is defined by Samuel T. Spear, D. D., in the following manner: “Those who drew the plan of our national government built the system upon the principle that religion and civil government were to be kept entirely distinct; and, for the most part, all the state governments are constructed upon the same theory. The general character of both is that they neither affirm nor deny any doctrine in respect to God, and that they command no duty as a religious duty. They deal with the temporal rights and obligations of citizenship, without any reference to the question whether the citizen is a religionist or not. His religious faith is no part of his citizenship, and no criterion of his rights. It confers upon him no immunities, and imposes no disabilities. It is a matter between himself and his God, and with it the civil authority does not concern itself. He is not forbidden to be an atheist, and commanded to be a Christian. He forfeits no rights by being the one, and gains none by being the other; and as between these two extremes of opinion, the state does not undertake to decide which is the true and which is the false opinion. Such is the great American principle in respect to the sphere of civil government.”
Great Statement of a Clergyman
In harmony with this view is the clause in the treaty with Tripoli, written by a Congregational clergyman, and adopted by men who lived contemporaneously with those who founded the United States government, which states: “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
Dared to Set the Example
George Bancroft, in his “History of the Formation of the Constitution,” says: “Vindicating the right of individuality even in religion, and in religion above all, the new nation dared to set the example of accepting in its relations to God the principle first divinely ordained of God in Judea. It left the management of temporal things to the temporal power; but the American constitution, in harmony with the people of the several states, withheld from the federal government the power to invade the home of reason, the citadel of conscience, the sanctuary of the soul; and not from indifference, but that the infinite spirit of eternal truth might move in its freedom and purity and power.”
Judge Welch, of the Supreme Court of the state of Ohio (23 Ohio Reports, Granger, pages 249, 250), says: “When Christianity772asks the aid of government beyond mere impartial protection, it disowns itself. Its essential interests lie beyond the reach and range of human governments. United with government, religion never rises above the merest superstition; united with religion, government never rises above the merest despotism; and all history shows us that the more widely and completely they are separated, the better it is for both.”
Thus far the United States government fulfils every specification of the prophecy. It arose at the right time. It came in the right manner. It developed the right principles, and established a new order of things in contrast to the beast—the papacy—before it.
He Spake as a Dragon
There is one more characteristic that must still meet its application in the government represented by the two-horned beast. “And he spake as a dragon.” The dragon made war with the woman—the church—because she kept the commandments of God, and had the testimony of Jesus Christ. Rev. 12:17.
This is a returning to the old order of things seen in the beast before him. “And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. . . . And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Rev. 13:12, 16, 17.
Here is plainly depicted a terrible apostasy from the lamblike principles of republicanism and Protestantism, an apostasy that develops a likeness to papal tyranny and oppression against those who are loyal to the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Will the United States ever fall away from her original principles sufficiently to fulfil this prediction? The prophecy forecasts a complete reversal of the order for which the nation originally stood. Is the United States taking steps in the direction of the fulfilment of this part of the prophecy? To speak as a dragon is to become a persecuting power.
Must Formulate a State Creed
What is it to “make an image to the beast”?—First, it is to formulate a creed; secondly, it is to punish by the civil power, as heretics, all who do not conform to that creed. It is to unite church and state. Under the reign of the beast, the papacy, Gibbon says: “And as the emperor ascended from the holy fount still glowing with the warm feelings of regeneration, he dictated a solemn edict, which proclaimed his own faith and prescribed the religion of his subjects. . . . We authorise the followers of this doctrine to assume the title of Catholic Christians: and as we judge that all others are extravagant madmen, we brand them with the infamous name of heretics, and declare that their conventicles shall no longer usurp the respectable appellation of churches. Besides the condemnation of divine justice, they must expect to suffer the severe penalties which our authority, guided by heavenly wisdom, shall think proper to inflict upon them.”—Gibbon’s Rome, chapter 27.
In the fifth council of Toledo, can. 3, the “holy fathers” say: “We, the holy council, promulgate this sentence pleasing to God, that whosoever hereafter shall succeed to the kingdom, shall not mount the throne till he hath sworn among others to permit no man to live in his kingdom who is not a Catholic.”
Foundation for Religious Despotism
As early as 1863 there started what was called a national reform movement in America, which, according to article 2 of its constitution, had for its avowed object this reversal of the principles for which the United States government stands. Article 1 reads, “This society shall be called ‘The National Reform Association.’” Article 2: “The object of this society shall be to maintain existing Christian features in the American government, and to secure such an amendment to the constitution of the United States as will indicate that this is a Christian nation, and place all the Christian laws, institutions, and usages of our government on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land.”
Supreme Court Lends Its Influence
The Supreme Court records of the United States, entry No. 143, entered October term, 1891, give Justice Brewer’s opinion rendered on February 29, 1892. In that opinion, he declared that the original meaning attached to amendment 1 of the United States constitution, “Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” meant that this is a “Christian nation,” and that the religion of the majority must be secured by the state against profanation, while other religions, termed the religions of “impostors,” should not be so protected, “for this plain reason, that the case assumes that we are a Christian people.”
His words follow: “The free, equal, and undisturbed enjoyment of religious opinion, whatever it may be, and free and decent discussions on any religious subject, is granted and secured; but to revile, with malicious and blasphemous contempt, the religion professed by almost the whole community, is an abuse of that right. Nor are we bound by any expression in the constitution, as some have strangely supposed, either not to punish at all or to punish indiscriminately the like attacks upon the religion of Mahomet or of the grand lama; and for this plain reason, that the case assumes that we are a Christian people, and the morality of this country is deeply ingrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines and worship of these impostors.”
This interpretation by the Supreme Court reverses the whole intent and purpose of the constitution, and opens the way for legislation upon religious questions, and for union of church and state, as in the papacy.
