Horned Lamb-Like Beast Roaring Like a Dragonby cakebmoreno
13:11Revelation 13:11
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
The beast coming up out of the earth is the United States, rising as a new and last power about 1798 when the papacy lost its persecuting strength, growing up gradually and peacefully like a plant in the previously unoccupied Western Continent rather than by conquest among crowded Old World nations. Its two horns like a lamb denote youth, innocence and gentleness, expressed in its two fundamental principles of Republicanism and Protestantism, meaning civil liberty and religious liberty with freedom of conscience and self-government. Speaking as a dragon means the actions of its legislative and judicial authorities through laws and decrees will contradict and repudiate those liberal peaceful principles, revealing a satanic spirit of intolerance, persecution and bitter hatred against God's law while professing to be Christian and heavenly. It will exercise all the power of the first beast, form an image to the beast by a union of church and state in which religious power controls civil government, and enforce worship through a counterfeit Sabbath on Sunday in homage to the papacy, bringing economic coercion forbidding buying and selling, imprisonment and a final death decree against those who will not comply. The heart of the conflict is obedience to God's law and the fourth commandment against the attempted change to Sunday, forming the great test before probation closes between those who keep the commandments and receive God's seal and those who worship the beast and receive his mark in forehead by mental agreement or in hand by forced outward compliance.
Nation Identified and Rise
The beast is the United States, a new and last power coming up after the papacy was deprived of its strength and forced to desist from persecution. Its appearance and manner of rise are unlike the preceding powers.
Its rise is placed in 1798, when the earlier beast loses its persecuting power and receives its deadly wound. That wound was the captivity of Pope Pius VI in 1798, ending the 42 months of oppression identified with the 1,260 days of Daniel 7, dated from 538 to 1798, fulfilling that he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. The United States was then rising into power, and was the only notable new power then rising.
Coming up out of the earth means the nation arose in territory previously unoccupied and grew up gradually and peacefully, like a plant growing or springing up like a silent seed emerging from vacancy. The earth points to the Western Continent, a region outside the ancient dominion, in contrast to the great kingdoms that gained dominion by conquest and revolution among the crowded nations of the Old World and by overthrowing other powers to establish themselves.
It was founded by Christian exiles seeking asylum and refuge from royal oppression and priestly intolerance, from popery and kingly rule and religious intolerance. Its broad foundation was civil and religious liberty, republican government and Protestantism, and these are the secret of its power and prosperity and of its rise to a place among the most powerful nations of the earth.
Meaning of Lamb Horns
The two horns like a lamb denote youth, innocence, gentleness and mild early professions. They are expressed in its two fundamental principles of Republicanism and Protestantism, meaning civil liberty and religious liberty. Those principles are freedom of conscience, self-government, republican government and Protestant principles. They are the secret of its power and prosperity and of its rise among the most powerful nations.
The two horns also represent its twofold power as the civil power and the ecclesiastical power, since a horn can represent a church.
Meaning of Dragon Speech
To speak as a dragon is for a nation to speak through the acts of its legislative and judicial authorities, through its laws and decrees. That speech will contradict and repudiate its lamb-like professions of gentleness, republicanism, Protestantism, civil liberty, religious liberty, self-government and freedom of conscience. It will develop intolerance and persecution like that of the dragon and the leopard-like beast, and will use civil power to enforce an observance that pays homage to the papacy and requires worship of the first beast. Such enforcement by law violates the nation's own principles and safeguards for religious liberty, in a government where legislative power rests with the people. Already many indications of that persecuting development are evident, pointing to a fuller future contradiction.
The dragon voice reveals the true character behind a fair, professedly Christian, meek and heavenly exterior. While professing to be allied to heaven and to follow the Lamb of God in meekness and humility, the power has the heart of a dragon, acts and legislates in Satan's spirit, and conceals the same satanic power that acted through pagan Rome and the papacy. It becomes Satan's agent and instrument in fierce opposition and bitter hatred against God's law, joining the dragon in making war on those who keep God's commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Through it Satan unites Papists and Protestants and acts in concert with them as god of this world, dictating to men as subjects of his kingdom to be handled and governed and controlled as he pleases, cooperating to persecute and to impose worship by force. It is one of the images by which Christ reveals the wicked character and seductive influence of persecutors, showing only two parties: those who keep God's commandments and those who war against His holy law, instigated by the same power that made war in heaven when Satan sought supremacy and was expelled.
The two phases of lamb-like gentleness followed by dragon-like fierceness were already seen in proclaiming the equality of all men in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness while upholding American slavery by law, and in professing liberty to worship God according to conscience while persecuting Baptists and Quakers. That contradiction is to be shown more fully when Congress is called to make laws concerning religion, for the beast has a civil power and, since a horn can represent a church, an ecclesiastical power. Its dragon character and spirit are now manifest and rapidly developing, marking entry on a new era in which everything will move with rapidity toward the closing scenes of this world's history. Religious legislation already enacted shows the image to the beast virtually formed, with only its foretold actions left to fully develop. The same dragon-like, lawless and disruptive spirit was illustrated by opponents teaching no-Sabbath and age-to-come errors, whose conduct helped settle wavering Sabbath-keepers against those teachings.
Enforced Worship and Persecution
The lamblike beast will exercise all the power of the first beast in his presence and cause the earth and those dwelling in it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. This work is the compelling of men by law to worship God according to human opinions, bringing the evil day of betrayal by brother, parent and child and hatred by all for Christ's name, in which endurance to the end is required to be saved. The image of the beast is formed before probation closes and not after, as the great test deciding eternal destiny which must come before God's people are sealed.
He does great wonders so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and by those miracles he deceives those dwelling on the earth. This wonder-working deception includes Spiritualism arising in the United States and going worldwide through American mediums and the personating of the dead. In its final fulfillment Satan himself will appear with great power and heavenly glory as an angel of light claiming to be Lord of the whole earth, declaring the Sabbath changed from the seventh to the first day and presenting this spurious Sabbath as a test of loyalty to him as lord of the first day.
Deceived by these miracles, earth-dwellers are told to make an image to the beast that had the wound by the sword and lived, and he has power to give life to the image so that it both speaks and causes as many as will not worship the image to be killed. The image-making means a union of church and state, or the subordinating of the civil power to the ecclesiastical power so the state enforces the tenets and requirements of the church. It is formed when Protestant churches unite in faith and seek secular support to enforce religious duties, above all Sunday observance, which is enforcement of worship of the beast and its image and homage to the power that instituted Sunday. That union is already virtually complete in steps toward declaring the nation Christian, government action on a religious question, and official dealings with the Vatican, with only its foretold speaking and killing actions left to develop.
He causes all, small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in the right hand or in the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell without the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. This brings forbidden buying and selling through economic coercion by unions, confederacies, combinations and monopolies, including trades unions and labor unions that deprive neighbors of freedom of action and deny poorer people advantages justly belonging to them. Belonging to these unions makes it impossible to keep the commandments of God, for they bind men in bundles ready to be burned as one of Satan's last efforts and a sign of the last days, calling God's people to get out of the cities and be isolated from the world while God cares for those who love Him and keep His commandments. Refusal will also bring imprisonment, councils, fines, cutting off of support, and at last a death decree against those who will not worship.
The mark is a counterfeit Sabbath on the day of the sun in direct opposition to God's Sabbath as the sign and seal of His authority and power. The forehead means the intellect or mind, so reception there is by mental agreement, and the hand means power, so reception there is by forced outward compliance. God's servants are sealed only in their foreheads, because compulsory worship is not acceptable to God though it is acceptable to wicked powers and has always been craved by the Romish hierarchy. Those who refuse the mark keep the commandments of God including the Sabbath and suffer persecution from those enforcing the beast's mark, and when the wrath of God comes the persecutors will realize the importance of the Sabbath as the seal of the living God, while those who knowingly choose the false Sabbath pay homage to the papacy.
This is the last oppressive power to trample the true church, and its number is 666. Its power, deception, wonders, miracles and oppression will be manifested in its final struggle under the seven last plagues, near its end, before the deliverance of God's people. Its fulfillment brings believers and unbelievers into clear conflict like Jacob in fear and distress when Esau came to meet him, with Jacob representing believers and Esau representing unbelievers. The sequence continues through Revelation 14:5 to the complete redemption of the 144,000, who gain victory over the beast and its image and mark and stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion at the close of time when God's people triumph.
Sabbath Conflict and Apostasy
The enforced observance that pays homage to the papacy is Sunday observance, and the prophecy is fulfilled when the United States enforces it. Rome claims Sunday observance as recognition of her supremacy, as acknowledgment of her authority, and as the false Sabbath that originated with her. By enforcing it, by causing worship of the papacy and directing the making of an image to it and enforcing its mark, Protestantism follows in the steps of the papacy and joins Rome in exalting Sunday and compelling religious allegiance. Protestant churches pay that homage by accepting the false Sabbath, prepare to employ the same coercive means Rome employed in bygone days, and will seek the aid of the self-styled infallible power to exalt it, which she will readily give because she knows how to deal with those disobedient to the church. Its fulfillment is rapidly advancing through the same claim of divine authority for Sunday-keeping without scriptural evidence, the same assertion that God's judgments are visited upon men for violation of the Sunday-Sabbath, and Rome's silent growth into power in legislative halls, in the churches, in the hearts of men, and in lofty structures where former persecutions will be repeated.
The conflict is over obedience to God's law and the fourth commandment, and over allegiance to God versus worship of the beast enforced through a false sabbath instituted by human powers in opposition to God's seventh-day Sabbath, the memorial of creation. Keeping the commandments distinguishes God's worshipers from those who worship the beast, while the papal attempt to change the Sabbath commandment — substituting the first day for the seventh — is the law-changing act at the heart of this allegiance. Satan caused the change of the Sabbath to make the commands of God of less force in the world than human laws, and the man of sin who thought to change times and laws and has always oppressed the people of God will cause laws to be made enforcing the observance of the first day of the week. That rival Sabbath is presented to weaken divine commands below human laws, through human methods and tradition leading people away from God's authority and into disregard for His commandments, with the change from the seventh day to the first day given as the example of this deception. The persecuting power compels this worship and oppresses and punishes those who keep God's commandments and keep holy the seventh day, while God's people are to stand firm for Him and the Lord will work in their behalf, showing plainly that He is the God of gods.
Past persecution over the Sabbath will be repeated when papists and Protestants unite to exalt Sunday, repeating Rome's past enmity toward the true Sabbath and its defenders. The history of the African churches shows Rome forcing Sabbath-observing Christians to set aside the seventh day and honor Sunday, while those churches returned to obedience to the fourth commandment when they regained freedom. The dragon spirit behind such persecution is shown by the papal bull calling to persecute the Vaudois, whose words reveal the spirit of the dragon rather than of Christ. That same spirit brings coming reproach and persecution upon whoever believes and obeys the word of God.
Its legislators will abjure the principles of Protestantism so as to give countenance and support to Romish apostasy, and by national act give vigor to the corrupt faith of Rome. When Protestant churches seek the support of the secular power, thus following the example of that apostate church for opposing which their ancestors endured the fiercest persecution, then there will be a national apostasy which will end only in national ruin. It speaks as a dragon when its rulers take their position above the Creator by bringing the false Sabbath to the front, accepting the first day of the week, enforcing its observance by law, restricting religious liberty, and abandoning Protestantism and republicanism. The rulers thus unite with the man of sin and accept the religion of the papacy to restore his lost ascendancy, make void the law of God, enforce a false religion and the church's institutions as an image to the papacy, and arouse a tyranny which only waits for a touch to start again into cruelty and despotism. That exercise of lawmaking power is the dragon voice and brings the tyranny of Rome, placing God's commandment-keeping people in a most trying position, yet when everything looks most forbidding for those who have walked in the light and diffused the light, God will work in His own power for His true people, interposing in their behalf and revealing His power to His faithful ones, with Christ as their refuge.
The image-making means a union of church and state, or subordinating the civil power to the ecclesiastical power so the state enforces the tenets and requirements of the church, which a Religious Amendment to the Constitution of the United States would speedily bring about. Steps toward that same kind of union in the United States include efforts to declare the nation Christian, government action on a religious question, and official dealings with the Vatican. The movement to secure state support for church practices, especially Sunday observance, advances the prophecy, with Protestants uniting with papists to exalt Sunday and open the way for papal supremacy to return. Protestant powers will unite with the persecuting powers of Rome and with spiritualism, bringing trials rather than peaceful conditions for those warning the world, and the coming contest will repeat Rome's treatment of the Sabbath and its defenders, including pressure and persecution against those who reject the union's religious demands. Revelation 14:9-12 is based altogether on these facts and condemns in the strongest terms this action and the worship it enforces, while calling to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, including the commandment enforcing the seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord, so that the contrast in both the facts and the message is between the Sabbath of the Lord and the opposing Sabbath, namely Sunday.
Prophetic Place and Warning
This beast belongs to the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 now being fulfilled, part of the last message of warning to be heard before the final call of Revelation 18 and the judgment and triumph of Revelation 19. It is a power to become prominent in the last days, shown because of its great importance to God's people, and its message must reach them free of human wisdom and tradition. It reveals what will surely take place in the worldwide conflict over the Sabbath question in which all the world will act a part. With the great red dragon and the leopard-like beast, it is one of the earthly governments especially engaged in trampling upon God's law and persecuting His people, carrying that war forward to the close of time when God's people exist only as a remnant keeping His commandments. What the beast, the image, and the mark represent must be interpreted in order to understand the third angel's message and its solemn warning against worshiping the beast.
The image to the beast is formed before probation closes, not after, and is the great test by which eternal destiny is decided and which must come before God's people are sealed. Revelation 14:9-12 is based altogether on Revelation 13:11-17, condemning in the strongest terms the action of this beast and the worship it enforces, while calling to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus including the seventh-day Sabbath. The contrast in both the prophecy and the message is therefore between the Sabbath of the Lord and an opposing Sabbath, namely Sunday. Those who prove loyalty by observing God's law and refusing a spurious Sabbath receive the seal of the living God, while those who surrender heavenly truth and accept Sunday as the Sabbath receive the mark of the beast. Worshiping the beast and receiving his mark brings drinking the wine of the wrath of God without mixture and torment with fire. The prophecy lays out in clear lines the position of God's people for this time in regard to Sunday laws, and the Sabbath question in this conflict will be worldwide and certain to take place.
It reveals the great and last warfare between only two classes, those obedient under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus, and those under the black banner of rebellion who make void His law and war against it. The lamb-like horns profess the character and features of a lamb and alliance to heaven, while speaking as a dragon reveals a dragon heart instigated by and united with satanic power, the same power that made war in heaven when Satan sought supremacy and was expelled. It is the enemy's plan of battle for the closing conflict between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness when delusions will try faith. The choice concerns every person, between allegiance to God through His seventh-day Sabbath as the memorial of creation and worship of the beast through a false sabbath instituted by human powers in opposition to God. Those who love God are marked by loving obedience and keeping His commandments, while the deceived company from whom light has departed teaches fables to counteract the last message of mercy.
Earthly powers unite with powers from beneath when satanic agencies unite with the professed Christian world in opposing God, with churches and the world united in trampling upon God's commandments and threatening with death all who obey His precepts. Papists and Protestants act in concert under Satan as god of this world, making laws compelling men to worship God according to human opinions. The restricting of buying and selling unless imposed conditions are met predicts the forming of unions, confederacies, combinations, gigantic monopolies and trades unions that control lines of business and force all to join. These unions deprive neighbors of freedom of action, deny poorer people advantages that justly belong to them, and bind men in bundles ready to be burned as one of Satan's last efforts and a sign of the last days. Belonging to them makes it impossible to keep the commandments of God because it disregards the entire Decalogue and violates love to God and neighbor with body, soul and spirit. This brings betrayal of brother by brother, parent and child, and hatred by all men for Christ's name.
This concerns every person and brings the evil day in which God's people must take the whole armor of God to stand and endure to the end to be saved. Which mark is borne means life or death, calling for missionary work and proclamation of the warning to the world so that the religious world is left without excuse for being asleep. God's people must get out of the cities and isolate themselves from the world, taking their work out of them, while God cares for those who love Him and keep His commandments. When everything looks most forbidding for those who have walked in the light and diffused the light, God will work in His own power for His true people, interposing in their behalf and revealing His power to His faithful ones with Christ as their refuge. Against this darkness the Lord will manifest converting power like the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days of the early disciples but more abundant in the latter rain, when the earth is lightened with His glory and many are converted and called out to stand faithful with the Lamb who overcomes because He is Lord of lords and King of kings.
The prophecy applies to the present time with urgency, requiring clear and powerful public discourse in the field that does great good. Its outwardly mild and Christian professions conceal a dragon-like spirit revealed when it speaks, and leaders of the Sunday movement conceal the real issue so that many who join do not see where it is leading. God's people must expose the issue, uphold the truth without concealing or denying it even at risk of property and liberty, and prepare to oppose the threat to liberty of conscience. Predictions of religious intolerance gaining control through church and state union to persecute commandment-keepers were dismissed as groundless, but growing agitation to enforce Sunday observance shows the foretold event approaching. Then the third angel's message will have an effect it could not have had before, awakening interest in the Sabbath and opening the way for it to be proclaimed with power. The full dragon speech is still future and will come when the real question between the true Sabbath and Sunday observance is fully met, while delay in placing the Sabbath decidedly before the world and the churches has encouraged Sunday observance and its false theory.
The beast coming up out of the earth is the United States, rising as a new and last power about 1798 when the papacy lost its persecuting strength, growing up gradually and peacefully like a plant in the previously unoccupied Western Continent rather than by conquest among crowded Old World nations. Its two horns like a lamb denote youth, innocence and gentleness, expressed in its two fundamental principles of Republicanism and Protestantism, meaning civil liberty and religious liberty with freedom of conscience and self-government. Speaking as a dragon means the actions of its legislative and judicial authorities through laws and decrees will contradict and repudiate those liberal peaceful principles, revealing a satanic spirit of intolerance, persecution and bitter hatred against God's law while professing to be Christian and heavenly. It will exercise all the power of the first beast, form an image to the beast by a union of church and state in which religious power controls civil government, and enforce worship through a counterfeit Sabbath on Sunday in homage to the papacy, bringing economic coercion forbidding buying and selling, imprisonment and a final death decree against those who will not comply. The heart of the conflict is obedience to God's law and the fourth commandment against the attempted change to Sunday, forming the great test before probation closes between those who keep the commandments and receive God's seal and those who worship the beast and receive his mark in forehead by mental agreement or in hand by forced outward compliance.
Nation Identified and Rise
The beast is the United States, a new and last power coming up after the papacy was deprived of its strength and forced to desist from persecution. Its appearance and manner of rise are unlike the preceding powers.
Its rise is placed in 1798, when the earlier beast loses its persecuting power and receives its deadly wound. That wound was the captivity of Pope Pius VI in 1798, ending the 42 months of oppression identified with the 1,260 days of Daniel 7, dated from 538 to 1798, fulfilling that he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. The United States was then rising into power, and was the only notable new power then rising.
Coming up out of the earth means the nation arose in territory previously unoccupied and grew up gradually and peacefully, like a plant growing or springing up like a silent seed emerging from vacancy. The earth points to the Western Continent, a region outside the ancient dominion, in contrast to the great kingdoms that gained dominion by conquest and revolution among the crowded nations of the Old World and by overthrowing other powers to establish themselves.
It was founded by Christian exiles seeking asylum and refuge from royal oppression and priestly intolerance, from popery and kingly rule and religious intolerance. Its broad foundation was civil and religious liberty, republican government and Protestantism, and these are the secret of its power and prosperity and of its rise to a place among the most powerful nations of the earth.
Meaning of Lamb Horns
The two horns like a lamb denote youth, innocence, gentleness and mild early professions. They are expressed in its two fundamental principles of Republicanism and Protestantism, meaning civil liberty and religious liberty. Those principles are freedom of conscience, self-government, republican government and Protestant principles. They are the secret of its power and prosperity and of its rise among the most powerful nations.
The two horns also represent its twofold power as the civil power and the ecclesiastical power, since a horn can represent a church.
Meaning of Dragon Speech
To speak as a dragon is for a nation to speak through the acts of its legislative and judicial authorities, through its laws and decrees. That speech will contradict and repudiate its lamb-like professions of gentleness, republicanism, Protestantism, civil liberty, religious liberty, self-government and freedom of conscience. It will develop intolerance and persecution like that of the dragon and the leopard-like beast, and will use civil power to enforce an observance that pays homage to the papacy and requires worship of the first beast. Such enforcement by law violates the nation's own principles and safeguards for religious liberty, in a government where legislative power rests with the people. Already many indications of that persecuting development are evident, pointing to a fuller future contradiction.
The dragon voice reveals the true character behind a fair, professedly Christian, meek and heavenly exterior. While professing to be allied to heaven and to follow the Lamb of God in meekness and humility, the power has the heart of a dragon, acts and legislates in Satan's spirit, and conceals the same satanic power that acted through pagan Rome and the papacy. It becomes Satan's agent and instrument in fierce opposition and bitter hatred against God's law, joining the dragon in making war on those who keep God's commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Through it Satan unites Papists and Protestants and acts in concert with them as god of this world, dictating to men as subjects of his kingdom to be handled and governed and controlled as he pleases, cooperating to persecute and to impose worship by force. It is one of the images by which Christ reveals the wicked character and seductive influence of persecutors, showing only two parties: those who keep God's commandments and those who war against His holy law, instigated by the same power that made war in heaven when Satan sought supremacy and was expelled.
The two phases of lamb-like gentleness followed by dragon-like fierceness were already seen in proclaiming the equality of all men in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness while upholding American slavery by law, and in professing liberty to worship God according to conscience while persecuting Baptists and Quakers. That contradiction is to be shown more fully when Congress is called to make laws concerning religion, for the beast has a civil power and, since a horn can represent a church, an ecclesiastical power. Its dragon character and spirit are now manifest and rapidly developing, marking entry on a new era in which everything will move with rapidity toward the closing scenes of this world's history. Religious legislation already enacted shows the image to the beast virtually formed, with only its foretold actions left to fully develop. The same dragon-like, lawless and disruptive spirit was illustrated by opponents teaching no-Sabbath and age-to-come errors, whose conduct helped settle wavering Sabbath-keepers against those teachings.
Enforced Worship and Persecution
The lamblike beast will exercise all the power of the first beast in his presence and cause the earth and those dwelling in it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. This work is the compelling of men by law to worship God according to human opinions, bringing the evil day of betrayal by brother, parent and child and hatred by all for Christ's name, in which endurance to the end is required to be saved. The image of the beast is formed before probation closes and not after, as the great test deciding eternal destiny which must come before God's people are sealed.
He does great wonders so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and by those miracles he deceives those dwelling on the earth. This wonder-working deception includes Spiritualism arising in the United States and going worldwide through American mediums and the personating of the dead. In its final fulfillment Satan himself will appear with great power and heavenly glory as an angel of light claiming to be Lord of the whole earth, declaring the Sabbath changed from the seventh to the first day and presenting this spurious Sabbath as a test of loyalty to him as lord of the first day.
Deceived by these miracles, earth-dwellers are told to make an image to the beast that had the wound by the sword and lived, and he has power to give life to the image so that it both speaks and causes as many as will not worship the image to be killed. The image-making means a union of church and state, or the subordinating of the civil power to the ecclesiastical power so the state enforces the tenets and requirements of the church. It is formed when Protestant churches unite in faith and seek secular support to enforce religious duties, above all Sunday observance, which is enforcement of worship of the beast and its image and homage to the power that instituted Sunday. That union is already virtually complete in steps toward declaring the nation Christian, government action on a religious question, and official dealings with the Vatican, with only its foretold speaking and killing actions left to develop.
He causes all, small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in the right hand or in the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell without the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. This brings forbidden buying and selling through economic coercion by unions, confederacies, combinations and monopolies, including trades unions and labor unions that deprive neighbors of freedom of action and deny poorer people advantages justly belonging to them. Belonging to these unions makes it impossible to keep the commandments of God, for they bind men in bundles ready to be burned as one of Satan's last efforts and a sign of the last days, calling God's people to get out of the cities and be isolated from the world while God cares for those who love Him and keep His commandments. Refusal will also bring imprisonment, councils, fines, cutting off of support, and at last a death decree against those who will not worship.
The mark is a counterfeit Sabbath on the day of the sun in direct opposition to God's Sabbath as the sign and seal of His authority and power. The forehead means the intellect or mind, so reception there is by mental agreement, and the hand means power, so reception there is by forced outward compliance. God's servants are sealed only in their foreheads, because compulsory worship is not acceptable to God though it is acceptable to wicked powers and has always been craved by the Romish hierarchy. Those who refuse the mark keep the commandments of God including the Sabbath and suffer persecution from those enforcing the beast's mark, and when the wrath of God comes the persecutors will realize the importance of the Sabbath as the seal of the living God, while those who knowingly choose the false Sabbath pay homage to the papacy.
This is the last oppressive power to trample the true church, and its number is 666. Its power, deception, wonders, miracles and oppression will be manifested in its final struggle under the seven last plagues, near its end, before the deliverance of God's people. Its fulfillment brings believers and unbelievers into clear conflict like Jacob in fear and distress when Esau came to meet him, with Jacob representing believers and Esau representing unbelievers. The sequence continues through Revelation 14:5 to the complete redemption of the 144,000, who gain victory over the beast and its image and mark and stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion at the close of time when God's people triumph.
Sabbath Conflict and Apostasy
The enforced observance that pays homage to the papacy is Sunday observance, and the prophecy is fulfilled when the United States enforces it. Rome claims Sunday observance as recognition of her supremacy, as acknowledgment of her authority, and as the false Sabbath that originated with her. By enforcing it, by causing worship of the papacy and directing the making of an image to it and enforcing its mark, Protestantism follows in the steps of the papacy and joins Rome in exalting Sunday and compelling religious allegiance. Protestant churches pay that homage by accepting the false Sabbath, prepare to employ the same coercive means Rome employed in bygone days, and will seek the aid of the self-styled infallible power to exalt it, which she will readily give because she knows how to deal with those disobedient to the church. Its fulfillment is rapidly advancing through the same claim of divine authority for Sunday-keeping without scriptural evidence, the same assertion that God's judgments are visited upon men for violation of the Sunday-Sabbath, and Rome's silent growth into power in legislative halls, in the churches, in the hearts of men, and in lofty structures where former persecutions will be repeated.
The conflict is over obedience to God's law and the fourth commandment, and over allegiance to God versus worship of the beast enforced through a false sabbath instituted by human powers in opposition to God's seventh-day Sabbath, the memorial of creation. Keeping the commandments distinguishes God's worshipers from those who worship the beast, while the papal attempt to change the Sabbath commandment — substituting the first day for the seventh — is the law-changing act at the heart of this allegiance. Satan caused the change of the Sabbath to make the commands of God of less force in the world than human laws, and the man of sin who thought to change times and laws and has always oppressed the people of God will cause laws to be made enforcing the observance of the first day of the week. That rival Sabbath is presented to weaken divine commands below human laws, through human methods and tradition leading people away from God's authority and into disregard for His commandments, with the change from the seventh day to the first day given as the example of this deception. The persecuting power compels this worship and oppresses and punishes those who keep God's commandments and keep holy the seventh day, while God's people are to stand firm for Him and the Lord will work in their behalf, showing plainly that He is the God of gods.
Past persecution over the Sabbath will be repeated when papists and Protestants unite to exalt Sunday, repeating Rome's past enmity toward the true Sabbath and its defenders. The history of the African churches shows Rome forcing Sabbath-observing Christians to set aside the seventh day and honor Sunday, while those churches returned to obedience to the fourth commandment when they regained freedom. The dragon spirit behind such persecution is shown by the papal bull calling to persecute the Vaudois, whose words reveal the spirit of the dragon rather than of Christ. That same spirit brings coming reproach and persecution upon whoever believes and obeys the word of God.
Its legislators will abjure the principles of Protestantism so as to give countenance and support to Romish apostasy, and by national act give vigor to the corrupt faith of Rome. When Protestant churches seek the support of the secular power, thus following the example of that apostate church for opposing which their ancestors endured the fiercest persecution, then there will be a national apostasy which will end only in national ruin. It speaks as a dragon when its rulers take their position above the Creator by bringing the false Sabbath to the front, accepting the first day of the week, enforcing its observance by law, restricting religious liberty, and abandoning Protestantism and republicanism. The rulers thus unite with the man of sin and accept the religion of the papacy to restore his lost ascendancy, make void the law of God, enforce a false religion and the church's institutions as an image to the papacy, and arouse a tyranny which only waits for a touch to start again into cruelty and despotism. That exercise of lawmaking power is the dragon voice and brings the tyranny of Rome, placing God's commandment-keeping people in a most trying position, yet when everything looks most forbidding for those who have walked in the light and diffused the light, God will work in His own power for His true people, interposing in their behalf and revealing His power to His faithful ones, with Christ as their refuge.
The image-making means a union of church and state, or subordinating the civil power to the ecclesiastical power so the state enforces the tenets and requirements of the church, which a Religious Amendment to the Constitution of the United States would speedily bring about. Steps toward that same kind of union in the United States include efforts to declare the nation Christian, government action on a religious question, and official dealings with the Vatican. The movement to secure state support for church practices, especially Sunday observance, advances the prophecy, with Protestants uniting with papists to exalt Sunday and open the way for papal supremacy to return. Protestant powers will unite with the persecuting powers of Rome and with spiritualism, bringing trials rather than peaceful conditions for those warning the world, and the coming contest will repeat Rome's treatment of the Sabbath and its defenders, including pressure and persecution against those who reject the union's religious demands. Revelation 14:9-12 is based altogether on these facts and condemns in the strongest terms this action and the worship it enforces, while calling to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, including the commandment enforcing the seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord, so that the contrast in both the facts and the message is between the Sabbath of the Lord and the opposing Sabbath, namely Sunday.
Prophetic Place and Warning
This beast belongs to the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 now being fulfilled, part of the last message of warning to be heard before the final call of Revelation 18 and the judgment and triumph of Revelation 19. It is a power to become prominent in the last days, shown because of its great importance to God's people, and its message must reach them free of human wisdom and tradition. It reveals what will surely take place in the worldwide conflict over the Sabbath question in which all the world will act a part. With the great red dragon and the leopard-like beast, it is one of the earthly governments especially engaged in trampling upon God's law and persecuting His people, carrying that war forward to the close of time when God's people exist only as a remnant keeping His commandments. What the beast, the image, and the mark represent must be interpreted in order to understand the third angel's message and its solemn warning against worshiping the beast.
The image to the beast is formed before probation closes, not after, and is the great test by which eternal destiny is decided and which must come before God's people are sealed. Revelation 14:9-12 is based altogether on Revelation 13:11-17, condemning in the strongest terms the action of this beast and the worship it enforces, while calling to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus including the seventh-day Sabbath. The contrast in both the prophecy and the message is therefore between the Sabbath of the Lord and an opposing Sabbath, namely Sunday. Those who prove loyalty by observing God's law and refusing a spurious Sabbath receive the seal of the living God, while those who surrender heavenly truth and accept Sunday as the Sabbath receive the mark of the beast. Worshiping the beast and receiving his mark brings drinking the wine of the wrath of God without mixture and torment with fire. The prophecy lays out in clear lines the position of God's people for this time in regard to Sunday laws, and the Sabbath question in this conflict will be worldwide and certain to take place.
It reveals the great and last warfare between only two classes, those obedient under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus, and those under the black banner of rebellion who make void His law and war against it. The lamb-like horns profess the character and features of a lamb and alliance to heaven, while speaking as a dragon reveals a dragon heart instigated by and united with satanic power, the same power that made war in heaven when Satan sought supremacy and was expelled. It is the enemy's plan of battle for the closing conflict between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness when delusions will try faith. The choice concerns every person, between allegiance to God through His seventh-day Sabbath as the memorial of creation and worship of the beast through a false sabbath instituted by human powers in opposition to God. Those who love God are marked by loving obedience and keeping His commandments, while the deceived company from whom light has departed teaches fables to counteract the last message of mercy.
Earthly powers unite with powers from beneath when satanic agencies unite with the professed Christian world in opposing God, with churches and the world united in trampling upon God's commandments and threatening with death all who obey His precepts. Papists and Protestants act in concert under Satan as god of this world, making laws compelling men to worship God according to human opinions. The restricting of buying and selling unless imposed conditions are met predicts the forming of unions, confederacies, combinations, gigantic monopolies and trades unions that control lines of business and force all to join. These unions deprive neighbors of freedom of action, deny poorer people advantages that justly belong to them, and bind men in bundles ready to be burned as one of Satan's last efforts and a sign of the last days. Belonging to them makes it impossible to keep the commandments of God because it disregards the entire Decalogue and violates love to God and neighbor with body, soul and spirit. This brings betrayal of brother by brother, parent and child, and hatred by all men for Christ's name.
This concerns every person and brings the evil day in which God's people must take the whole armor of God to stand and endure to the end to be saved. Which mark is borne means life or death, calling for missionary work and proclamation of the warning to the world so that the religious world is left without excuse for being asleep. God's people must get out of the cities and isolate themselves from the world, taking their work out of them, while God cares for those who love Him and keep His commandments. When everything looks most forbidding for those who have walked in the light and diffused the light, God will work in His own power for His true people, interposing in their behalf and revealing His power to His faithful ones with Christ as their refuge. Against this darkness the Lord will manifest converting power like the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days of the early disciples but more abundant in the latter rain, when the earth is lightened with His glory and many are converted and called out to stand faithful with the Lamb who overcomes because He is Lord of lords and King of kings.
The prophecy applies to the present time with urgency, requiring clear and powerful public discourse in the field that does great good. Its outwardly mild and Christian professions conceal a dragon-like spirit revealed when it speaks, and leaders of the Sunday movement conceal the real issue so that many who join do not see where it is leading. God's people must expose the issue, uphold the truth without concealing or denying it even at risk of property and liberty, and prepare to oppose the threat to liberty of conscience. Predictions of religious intolerance gaining control through church and state union to persecute commandment-keepers were dismissed as groundless, but growing agitation to enforce Sunday observance shows the foretold event approaching. Then the third angel's message will have an effect it could not have had before, awakening interest in the Sabbath and opening the way for it to be proclaimed with power. The full dragon speech is still future and will come when the real question between the true Sabbath and Sunday observance is fully met, while delay in placing the Sabbath decidedly before the world and the churches has encouraged Sunday observance and its false theory.