8-THE FALSE PROPHET

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 18, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 32.

8—THE FALSE PROPHET

Please give me some light on Rev. 20: 10, which speaks of the false prophet in the singular number. H. W. J.

Our querist makes reference to “Questions and Answers.” The answer there is altogether too brief. The two-horned beast is a union of church and state. But it is more than that; it is a union of church and state in some particular government. A mere beast might represent a government, as do the ram and the goat of Daniel 8; but a fierce, wild, and cruel beast would represent a government in which church and state are united and the government is therefore a persecutor. Such governments are so represented in Daniel 7.

In Revelation 13 we have a beast with “two horns like a lamb.” Naturally it would not be a persecutor. But an additional feature is given to it which indicates that it is a persecutor—it “spake as a dragon.” The dragon primarily represents the devil. Rev. 12:9. The beast is the devil’s agency working through various forms of government, represented by the seven heads. One great principle underlies the whole system, but this principle is developed in concrete forms; therefore out of this seven-headed system we have Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, pagan Rome, papal Rome, apostate Protestantism, and the restoration of the papacy. This beast reigns in the Old World. The two-horned beast is the manifestation of government and power in a different part of the world, namely, on the western continent. When the United States of America first flung her national banner to the breeze, she was as nearly an ideal Christian government as could be, embodying two great principles of Christianity, religious liberty and equality.

But the overweening desire of religious men to rule has developed within the United States strong parties, tremendous organizations, which are determined to place upon the statute-books of this country religious laws and ordinances. That government which said to the world, “Here is freedom,” will, in yielding to these religious demands, prove false to her profession. In other words, she will be a false prophet, to lead the nations of the earth back into the persecutions and oppression of the Dark Ages. The false prophet and the two-horned beast are therefore identical.

Rev. 20:10 would better read this way: “And the devil that deceived them was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet were cast, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.” It will be noticed that “are” is in italics, showing that it is supplied; but the proper term to supply there is not “are,” because the beast and the false prophet perish at the second coming of our Lord. By reference to Rev. 19:19, 20, it will be seen that the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, together with the false prophet, are taken and cast alive into a lake of fire and brimstone. This is at the time of the second advent, when the remnant of the wicked are slain by the presence of the Lord.

When Christ comes the second time, judgment is enacted, not upon individuals, but upon the nations, and the nations are destroyed. At the end of the thousand years, when the wicked dead arise, it will be an entirely new alinement. Satan will reorganize his work with the vast host of all the wicked who have lived in the past. But in the end, the devil and all his hosts will be just as utterly destroyed as will the beast and the false prophet at the coming of Christ.