p. 6 | THE PAPACY IN PROPHECY by ABDIEL

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 28, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 46.

THE PAPACY IN PROPHECY

By ABDIEL

THE TWO-HORNED BEAST.

The Dragon Voice.

In our last study of Rev. 13:11-17 (see text below), we learned that the two horns like a lamb symbolized two principles found in the Christian religion of all religions, in the Federal Government of the United States of all governments. Therefore, in the time and the place of its coming up, as well as in its fundamental principles, the two-horned beast is a symbol of this government. It can apply to no other. All the specifications of the prophecy fit the United States alone. If it has not this application, we have a prophetic symbol applying to nothing, and one of the greatest of world-powers, the great republic of the West, has no prophetic symbol. Either supposition is unreasonable. If the only specifications of character were the lamb-like principles of equality of men and freedom of choice in religion, no one would demur to the application of the prophetic symbol to this country; for the character and fundamental law of the government demonstrate its truth.

Equality of man—republicanism—and freedom of choice—fundamental Protestantism—were the two mighty attractions in this government which brought to its shores from the Old World the liberty-loving hearts who braved all perils to find “a church without a pope and a state without a king.” The new republic engraved upon the reverse side of her great seal what her example and influence was rapidly stamping upon the dominating influences of the great nations of earth, Novus Ordo Seclorum, “a new order of things.”

Yet the same “sure word of prophecy,” which outlined the beginning of the career of this government, also declares that it

“Spake as a Dragon.”

The dragon is a symbol of the devil, the great “deceiver” of the world, the great instigator of all the tyranny and oppression which ever cursed the people of this planet. Rev. 12:9. Satan persecutes by inducing apostate and deceived civil governments to unite religion with the state and promulgate laws against dissenters. Thus, through seven great dominant dynasties, beginning with Babylon, the dragon, Satan, has persecuted the church. Rev. 12:13. The only conclusion, therefore, to which we can come is, that this government which started so grandly, with such noble principles emblazoned on her escutcheon, will forget those principles, connect religion with the state, and become a persecutor.

How Is This to Be Accomplished?

This is further shown in the prophecy. Note the forecast of the two-horned beast’s work in the scripture which is here repeated. Rev. 13:11-17:

“And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like unto a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in his sight. And he maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose death-stroke was healed. And he doeth great signs, that he should even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men. And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who hath the stroke of the sword and lived. And it was given unto him to give breath to it, even to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as should not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, that there be given them a mark on their right hand, or upon their forehead; and that no man should be able to buy or to sell, save he that hath the mark, even the name of the beast or the number of his name.”

He deceives the earth-dwellers by “great signs” which it was given him to do.
He causes the earth and those who dwell therein to make an image to the seven-headed beast.
He causes the earth-dwellers to worship both the beast and its image.
He gives life to the image and makes it speak.
The worship of the image is enforced under penalty of death.
It causes all to receive a mark in the right hand or upon the forehead as a mark of homage to the beast and its image, under penalty upon refusal of confiscation of all natural rights.

We will enter upon no extended discussion of the “great signs” by which the earth-dwellers are deceived. Suffice to say that this land above all others is “the land of marvels.” In discovery and invention, and in its impulse and opportunity and encouragement to discovery and invention, America stands pre-eminent. By her very cleverness she is winning homage from the world, which the devil will bend in a wrong direction.

Here, too, in America, in public manifestation, in the year 1848, started the very beginning of the wave of occultism which is sweeping the habitable earth. It was manifest first in Modern Spiritualism, with its marvels, gross, deceptive, and otherwise. The occultism of the oriental countries has taken advantage of conditions here, and has entered America as the promising missionary field of the world. But the old and new Buddhism, Theosophy, Modern Spiritualism, Christian Science, New Thought, Telepathy, Psychic Magnetism, Hypnotism, are all but different phases and forms of spiritism used by the devil, and based on the old Satanic deception and falsehood, “Ye shall be as God;” “ye shall not surely die.”

The church of Jesus Christ, the Protestant church at large, which ought to be the great conservator of truth, calling men back from these deceptions, has lost her bearing. The Bible is no longer the word of God to her; rather it is a collection of religious myths, inaccurate history, mistaken philosophy, questionable traditions, variable ethics, expressing only the wisdom and experience of the ages in which its different parts were written. To this low condition “higher criticism” and “profound scholarship” has brought it, and even good men in the church who do not believe in all the deductions of the critics are fearful that the critics may be right, and are weakened in their convictions, uncertain as to conclusion, and timid as to assertion.

Many feel that there is a revival, an old-fashioned revival, of religion needed, but like the writer of the article on page 14, entitled, “Whom Can You Trust?” how timidly they approach it. They lack the boldness to thunder as did Whitefield, even to church-members, “Ye must be born again,” and to clinch this home as did Wesley, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

An apostate church, a backslidden church, is ever looking for signs. Even so were the Jews in the days of Jesus: “What sign showest Thou?” “Master, we would see a sign from Thee;” “Show us a sign.” And yet the mightiest sign of all, the demonstration of the word and truth of God in the humanity of Jesus, they could not see. When the Christian church departed from the simplicity of the Word, she sought for merit in sacred places, in holy things, in bones and relics of some departed saint. And the superstition brought the appeal to civil law to support traditionary dogma, brought the Dark Ages, brought all the fearful persecutions which followed.

What Will Grow Out of This?

Just what grew out of the backsliding and apostasy in the early centuries. A church losing spiritual power will always resort to the Egypt or the Assyria of civil law. So the two-horned beast, in response to the demand coming up from the deceived ones, causes to be made an image to the preceding beast; that beast was a union of church, or religion, with the state. That is what made it the beast, the persecuting power that it was. An image to that beast means the union of religion and the state in this country, all the preliminary steps to which have already been taken.

“The Image and the Mark,” next week.