THE PAPACY IN PROPHECY by ABDIEL

Pacific Press Publishing Company · MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA · Nov 14, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 44.

THE PAPACY IN PROPHECY

By ABDIEL

THE BEAST OF REVELATION XIII.

THE reader will note the different symbols under which the adversary and his agents are set before us in the Revelation. We first have the seven-headed dragon, with his ten horns, existing to the end; secondly, the seven-headed ten-horned beast of chapter 13, working in the end with its associate, the two-horned beast; thirdly, a seven-headed, ten-horned, scarlet beast, ridden and guided by a woman in chapter 17; fourthly, the woman herself as the corruptor of all kingdoms in chapter 18. These represent various phases of the same evil working. A right understanding makes perfect harmony.

Read again the first four verses of Revelation 13:

"And I ["he," Am. Rev. Ver.] stood upon the sand of the sea, and ["I," Am. Rev. Ver.] saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name ["names," A. R. V.] of blasphemy. "And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat ["throne," Greek], and great authority. "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death ["As tho it had been smitten unto death," A. R. V.]; and his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered after the beast. "And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?"

The dragon we studied last week, and found that he represented the devil, God's adversary, working through the apostate kingdoms of earth, symbolized by the heads. The dragon was a persecutor; for he persecuted the woman, the church. Rev. 12:13. He did this in the decrees he issued against her through these apostate powers. These heads spoke for him through persecuting laws.

The Beast of Chapter 13.

Mark the symbolism of the prophecy. The "sea" upon the sand of which the dragon stood, represents the peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. Chapter 17:15. As a result of Satan's machinations there arose a great counterfeit system of government in opposition to God, a seven-headed monstrosity.

As with the dragon, the beast has seven heads and ten horns. In fact, the seven heads of the dragon are beast heads, shown on the dragon as the devil's agencies, shown on the beast as the visible foes of God.

The beast is a composite, having combined in it all the forms and nature of the beasts of Daniel 7. It had ten horns (Rome); body was like that of the leopard (Grecia); it had the feet of the bear (Medo-Persia); it had the mouth of a lion (Babylon). It was an agent of the dragon, the devil; for from him the beast received his power, his throne, and great authority. It was antagonistic to God; for upon its heads were names of blasphemy.

These heads are not contemporaneous, but successive, that is, one followed another. Rev. 17:7, 10. The horns, as we learn from Daniel 7, exist at the same time, they are contemporaneous, coming upon the stage of action in only the last agencies of Satan.

It is the head, the brain, the mind, which gives character to the person. While the Babylonian head flourished, the beast was Babylonian, so also with the heads Medo-Persia and Grecia. After Grecia came Pagan Rome, which the devil used to put Christ, the Man-child, to death; but the child was caught up to God and His throne, and the effort of the devil was turned against the church.

Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Pagan Rome are no more as existing dominant powers, all are merged in their successor. Through it all the Babylonian mouth speaks. The fifth head is identical with the little horn of Daniel 7; for they are both persecutors; they both speak great things against God; they both attempt to change His law; they both continue as dominant persecutors the same period of time: namely, 1,260 years. Both are therefore demonstrated to be symbols of the Papacy.

An Evil System.

Again, we say that our contention in these articles is not against Catholics as men and women. Our prayer for them all is that they may be saved. It is the system which is presented in these prophecies; it is our duty to proclaim the prophecy. Note its character:

1. The beast is the legitimate successor of all the beasts before it. Papal Rome is the legitimate successor of all the heathen powers before it. This has been ably and copiously set forth by both Mourant Brock in his "Likeness of Paganism to Catholicism," and by Hyslop's "Two Babylons."

2. The beast is a bearer of blasphemous heads, of which the Papacy is one. Are not the claim of infallibility, the assumption of the power to forgive sin and grant indulgences; the divine titles assumed, and the change which that power has thought to make in God's law, certain evidences, if any could exist, that to that system belongs the name blasphemy.

3. The beast demands and receives worship. "They worshiped the beast," and worshiped the dragon by worshiping the beast. "And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, every one whose name hath not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain." Verse 8. The Papacy demands worship in that it requires obedience to the changes it has made in God's law, rather than obedience to the law. The highest form of worship is service. Matt. 4:10. The Papacy demands homage and service contrary to God's law.

4. The beast continues forty-two months, 1,260 days, symbolical of so many years. The Papacy in its dominating power of the churches, as "the corrector of heretics" flourished from 538 to 1798.

5. One of the heads of the beast was wounded unto death. What is comprehended by this? The beast represents a church-and-state system. A civil power, unconnected with religion or church will not persecute, or be intolerant. A religious power, having no connection with civil government can not persecute. The union of the two inevitably makes an intolerant power. When Justinian decreed in the sixth century that the bishop of Rome should be "Head over all the Holy Churches," and "true and only corrector of heretics," there was in that decree a union of church and state. In 538 that union became effective by the suppression of the Ostrogoths, the last of the Arian powers opposed to the Papacy. This union made the head of the beast, and for the time it existed it gave character to the beast.

The wounding of that head to death would be the destruction of that union. That could be effected by the destruction of the ecclesiastical power, a thing in itself unlikely and well-nigh impossible; or the taking away of the power to furnish heresy by the civil government. This was done by the wounding of the vigorous blows of the Reformation, the coming in of a liberal spirit, and the separation in a decided way by the nations of Europe, till the last blow was struck by France in 1798. Since that time that head has been wounded to death. The beast has not been a papal beast. The Church of Rome has ever since been lamenting her widowhood, her separation from the state.

The other, the two-horned beast, in our next.