XXXI. The Beast—Abnormal, Satanic System of Government
In our last was shown the nature of Church-and-State governments, symbolized in the Word of God by cruel wild beasts.
The beast of Rev. 13: 1, 2, is a symbol of this abnormal, monstrous system of government among the nations of earth, corrupting the truth of God, guided and controlled by Satan as far as Higher Power permits, warring against God, His Christ, and His church, until the culmination of righteous indignation sweeps it from the earth at the coming of the Son of Man.
The First Head
The heads represent the seven great and prominent phases of this same system during its existence, through which Satan has especially worked against the truth of God, beginning with Babylon. Retrospectively, the prophecy begins with the empire of Babylon and the captivity of the church of God, represented by the travailing woman of the last chapter. Before her Babylonian captivity, she was practically independent of earthly powers. Her travail and pain, her longing for her King, the Man Child, began about 600 B.C. Satan then began his waiting for the birth of the Man Child, endeavoring to destroy the mother and thus destroy her Seed. This first head was Babylon, and while it existed, the beast was a Babylonian beast; for it is the head, the seat of the intellect, mind, and will, that gives character to the whole. Satan, through Babylon, endeavored to destroy the people of God at their captivity, and doubtless would have followed the proposed burning of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace by the destruction of all the faithful, had not God interposed. In the light of the prophecy it was the empire of Babylon under satanic control; and therefore the fallen Lucifer is called "the king of Babylon." (See Isa. 14: 4-14.)
The Second and Third Head
Babylon was succeeded by the next great world-power, Medo-Persia. Satan perverted that government to his own ends. Darius was persuaded to put himself in the place of God (Daniel 6), and under him the prophet of God was cast into the den of lions, because he would not submit to the beast-power, the wicked system of satanic government. Later, through Haman, in the reign of Ahasuerus, Satan thought to destroy ALL the people of God, the woman through whom the Man Child should come (see Esther, chapters 3-9); but God again frustrated his purpose.
Medo-Persia was succeeded by Grecia, the third head of the beast. During Grecia's rule the beast was Grecian, even as under the two previous heads it had been successively Babylonian and Medo-Persian. Alexander, the great King, would probably have destroyed Jerusalem if God had not interposed by a dream. (See Josephus' "Antiquities," book 11, chapter 8, sections 4, 5.) Later, through Antiochus Epiphanes, Satan attempted the same thing, and many were slaughtered and the temple profaned; but God again wrought for the daughter of Jerusalem. (See the first six chapters of 1 Esdras, Josephus' "Wars," book 1, chapter 1, sections 1, 2; "Antiquities," book 12, chapter 7, sections 1, 2.)
The Fourth Head
The fourth head of the beast-system of government controlled by Satan, was Pagan Rome (which succeeded Grecia, so far as God's people are concerned, in B.C. 161). Still the dragon was watching and waiting for the Man Child, that he might destroy it. Micah 4: 10; Rev. 12: 1-4. This certainly must refer to Satan, for Pagan Rome did not know that a Man Child was to be born. Satan, however, knew it, and Satan watched for the event, and Satan stirred up Pagan Rome under Herod and Pilate to do his will, and to destroy the Hope of the race. But he failed, as we have seen in previous articles.
The Rise of the Fifth Head
Satan then endeavored to use the same head to persecute the church; but paganism was dying. Its zeal was waxing cold. It could well as subversive of just rules of prophetic exposition. By what rule is Rome entitled to recognition from the beginning any more than Grecia or Persia? Rome did not come into connection with the people of God till B.C. 161, when several of the so-called heads had passed away. Of these forms of government there were but three previous to the breaking up of the empire in the fourth century; namely, monarchial, republican, imperial. The traditional kings were but chiefs of savage tribes, occupying a very small territory. Consuls began with the republic and continued to the fifth century of the Christian era. For a time they "were the supreme executive officers, but had no legislative authority." (Johnson's "New Universal Encyclopedia.") "Decemvirs were ten extraordinary magistrates elected from the Roman patricians to draw up a code of laws." "Their laws were approved by the Senate." During the time they were codifying the laws "they were also invested with supreme authority to govern the State." (Id.) As they did not complete their work the first year, decemvirs were elected the following year, but ruling so tyrannously, and refusing to give up their office at the end of their term, they "were driven from office, and the ordinary magistrates were re-established." (Id.) They were magistrates appointed for a special work for a special time by a republic, and during their work Rome was a republic still. The regular offices were merely suspended.
A dictator was "an extraordinary magistrate in the republic of ancient Rome, who was invested with nearly absolute power for a period of six months, and was irresponsible. Dictators were appointed when the republic was in danger, or when an important crisis demanded the prompt decision and vigorous action of a single executive chief." (Id.) It is simply the declaration of martial law, an expedient well known in the republic of the United States of America. Imagine this country to be the size of the District of Columbia; its chief city, Washington, threatened with serious danger. The civil offices would suspend their functions and proclaim martial law to meet the exigency; the military officer takes command instead of the civil. But the dictator had no control over the public treasury; he could not leave the country, nor ride through Rome on horseback, without the consent of the people. Rome was a republic still, and the dictator but one of her extraordinary officers. The triumvirs were consuls and chief men in the republic who transcended their just powers, altho the second triumvirate was officially recognized by the Senate. The Senate was a continuous and constituent part of the Roman government. The triumvirates came in in the transition from the republic to the empire. The President of the United States has supreme executive power; Congress has supreme legislative power; the Supreme Court has supreme judicial power; but these are not three forms of government. While in common parlance they might be spoken of as three heads, they are not heads in the sense of the prophecy of Revelation 127and 13.
even admit Jesus Christ as one of its gods. Its rulers thought too much of ease, and wealth, and luxury to become stirred to any great extent against the religion of Christ. Satan must have a stronger, more virile, more zealous agent for evil. And when began the decay of Pagan Rome, he began to corrupt the religion of Jesus Christ, the mystery of God, into a paganized religion — the "mystery of iniquity." So successful was he in this, so rapidly did apostasy develop, that in A.D. 325 the creed power of men, assisted by a pagan emperor, had established the Roman Catholic Church by law. This took place at the Council of Nice under the pagan Constantine. Satan was enlarging and developing the Papacy as the fifth head of his infernal system of perverted government, his masterpiece of the ages, infused with the perverted life and law of the highest form of religion the world had ever known. It is to this period that the chronology of Rev. 13: 1, 2 belongs. It was at this time that another head was relegated to the past by the master mind of iniquity, and a more powerful took the place of earthly empire, clothed with satanic power, placed on Satan's throne in subverted earthly rule, and receiving authority exceeding that given to any other head.
This greater authority from Satan was manifest in the greater prominence given to the religious element of the monster. Previous to this, under the other heads, with their varying gods and forms of worship and blasphemies, the State had been dominant. The State had controlled religion, more than religion had controlled the State. Given then an honorable ruler, who cared little or nothing for the State religion, and he became a good ruler. But under the fifth head, the Papacy, religion, ecclesiasticism, was dominant. The State must be governed by the Church for her good, and not the Church governed by the State for the State's good. Here is the highest form of Church and State government. In a defense of the Inquisition a Catholic writer says:
Moreover, since all statesmen and public officers were at the same time Catholics, it is most easy to understand that they enacted laws and punishments in keeping with their religious convictions. To put it briefly, in those middle ages, there was the greatest union of Church and State.—James I. Conway, in "Catholic Mirror" of August 29, 1896.
This being the nature of the system, the hunting and persecution of heretics became a logical sequence. The more devoted the devotee of the system, the more persistent in hunting down heretics. Says the same article:
Consequently, it is evident that one who was a heretic then, was by that very fact in opposition to the spirit of the laws and customs of his country — in other words, a disturber of the public peace and an underminer of civil society.
And then, says the same writer, the agencies of the church "diligently sifted out and indicted heretics of every description."
This is the character of the fifth head of the beast, and during the time of the existence of that head the beast became the papal beast. But the days of its persecution, the period of its spiritual domination, were limited. It is thus stated by the prophet:
And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and there was given to him authority to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, even them that dwell in the heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. Rev. 13: 5-7, A.R.V.
Note the following prophetic specifications concerning this power:
1. A mouth speaking great things and blasphemies against God and His name. (Verse 5.) It is therefore a religious power, which blasphemes God.
2. It should continue forty and two months. (Verse 5.) The same period is elsewhere called "a time, times, and a half," "a thousand two hundred and threescore days." (See Dan. 7: 25; Rev. 11: 2, 3; 12: 6, 14.) As short-lived beasts are used to symbolize long existing dynasties, kingdoms, or systems of government, so, to be consistent, short periods of time are used to symbolize longer periods. A year is a "time." (See Dan. 4: 16; 11: 13, margin.) According to the Bible mode of reckoning time there are thirty days in a month (compare Gen. 7: 11; 8: 4, 3), and twelve months in a year, making 360 days in a year. A "time," one year; "times," the dual number, two years; and a "half time," three and one half years; equal to forty-two months, 1,260 days. This, according to symbolic time, "a day for a year" (Eze. 4: 6), symbolizes a period of spiritual domination for this head of 1,260 years.
3. It is a power which works against the very truth of God, God's name, or character, His dwelling-place, and His angels. (Verse 6.)
4. It makes war with the saints, and overcomes them, killing them with the sword. (Verses 7, 10.)
5. He had power over all nations, tongues, etc.
6. All those who are not Christ's will yield to his worship.
7. He will finally receive a death stroke, and by violence his power shall be taken away. Verses 10, 3.
8. Yet shall the death stroke be healed, and the beast in that form shall live again. Still other specifications are given of the same power in Dan. 7: 8, 20-26. There is but one power or system to which these specifications in toto apply, DURING THIS PERIOD, and that is to that system of Church-and-State government known as the Papacy. These we will consider in our next.
