Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth.
By Editor
Before us is a little sheet which has been scattered more or less, we suppose, throughout the Pacific Coast region, perhaps throughout the United States, on the beast that “was, and is not, and yet is.” To those who know the Scriptures, its fallacy will be perfectly apparent. To those who do not, there is a likelihood of deception and disappointment. The circular takes the position that the scarlet beast of Revelation 17 was in the past, is now dead, but will live again after the 1,000 years; and it tells us this just as tho the Scriptures said that, quoting Rev. 20:14. But this is not what the Scripture declares. John saw that beast under a particular head. It was the head which gave character to the beast, and that beast exists under seven different heads, every one of which represents a different character,—a different beast, so to speak. The beast under the head which John first saw “was, is not, and shall come.” But all of this is previous to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, previous to the judgment that is pronounced in Revelation 18. The same circular takes the ground that the “wilderness” to which John was carried is the earth in its desolate condition,—another utterly unscriptural position. The “wilderness” of which he speaks he had himself spoken of before (see Rev. 12:6). There are two religious bodies represented in Revelation as seen at the time of the wilderness state: in the one, apostasy rides in triumph; in the other, the true church of God is persecuted. A few such considerations show the entire fallacy of the view advocated in the little sheet referred to.