13:12Revelation 13:12

The second beast with lamb-like horns is the United States exercising all the persecuting power of the first beast, the papacy, and causing the earth to give it worship.GC 441.2–443.1+4
That enforced worship is the use of civil and national authority to compel rest on Sunday, which Rome originated and claims as the sign of her authority, in place of the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment.GC 578.3+4
In doing this the lamb-like power forms the image of the beast when apostate Protestantism controls the civil government and uses the state to enforce its teachings and punish dissent.15MR 15.1–3+3
This brings the last great warfare between only two classes, those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus and those who make void His law, with the faithful forbidden to buy or sell and threatened with death yet delivered by God.Ms 16, 1900, par. 5–6+4
The warning therefore calls all who hear to refuse homage to the beast and his image, stand firm for the seventh day, and proclaim the third angel's message with power.Ms 23, 1889, par. 4–6+4

The beast with horns like a lamb is the United States, and the first beast before him whose power he exercises is the papacy, the Roman Church, also described as the leopard-like beast.GC 441.2–443.1+4 He causes the earth and its inhabitants to worship that first beast by using national authority to enforce a religious observance that gives homage to the papacy.GC 441.2–443.1+2 That exercise of the first beast's authority develops the intolerance and persecution shown by the dragon and the leopard-like beast.GC 441.2–443.1+2

He comes up out of the earth, not out of the sea, growing like a plant in a locality outside the Old World without rising by conquest of nations and peoples.4SP 502.4–6+2 His rise is peaceful, as a refuge from popery and kingly rule.Ms 51, 1899, par. 4–6+2 The secret of his power and prosperity is Republicanism and Protestantism, the principles of civil and religious liberty.Ms 51, 1899, par. 4–6+2

His two horns like a lamb are civil power and ecclesiastical power, a horn meaning a church.4SP 502.4–6 They are specifically Republicanism and Protestantism.4SP 502.4–6+1

The first beast received its power, its seat in the city of Rome, and great authority from the dragon, which is pagan Rome.4SP 502.4–6 That power and seat came ultimately from Satan, so that both the papacy and the second beast exercising the same power act as another persecuting power and as instruments of Satan working through earthly governments, with dragon-like speech and enforcement of worship through false miracles revealing Satan's influence beneath a lamb-like appearance.4SP 502.4–6+1 The union of church and state turns such powers into persecuting powers, and under its dominant head the first beast's church-state union enabled 1,260 years of persecution.DA 837.3–4

The lamb-like appearance professes heavenly character and gentleness, proclaiming the equality of all men in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and the right to worship God according to conscience.4SP 502.4–6+2 Speaking as a dragon reveals a satanic heart and allegiance, instigated by and united with the satanic power that made war in heaven.Ms 139, 1903, par. 12–15+2 That speaking means action by legislative and judicial authorities, for by enforcing a religious observance through civil power the nation contradicts its professed principles of liberty and religious freedom.4SP 502.4–6+2 Near the end of time this false religious power displays increasing outward signs of heathen power, already beginning to be fulfilled.Ms 139, 1903, par. 12–15+1

The distinction between the earth and them which dwell therein is fulfilled when Sunday rest is enforced across the land, not merely adopted by individuals.4SP 503.1–2 Because that observance originated with the Roman Church, compelled rest on that day directs homage to the power that established it.4SP 503.1–2

The deadly wound is the abolition and downfall of the papacy in 1798, and its healing is the restoration of its power, after which the world again wonders after it and gives it homage.GC 578.3+1 That restored homage comes in both the Old and New Worlds through honor paid to Sunday, when the lamb-horned power exercises the first beast's authority and causes the earth to worship the leopard-like beast.GC 578.3+1 Sunday is the means because Rome originated it and claims it as the sign of her supremacy and as special acknowledgment of her authority, so enforced Sunday observance directs worship to her.GC 578.3+1

The first beast under its dominant head is the papacy, whose union of church and state made it a persecuting power and enabled 1,260 years of persecution.DA 837.3–4 Despite a changed outward appearance it remains the same despotic authority that persecuted the saints and claimed God's prerogatives.GC 571.1–3 The two-horned power coming up out of the earth first appeared gentle as a lamb in proclaiming equality in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and the right to worship according to conscience, then showed itself fierce as a dragon in upholding American slavery by law and in persecuting Baptists and Quakers.4SP 502.4–6 That dragon character is to be shown more fully when laws concerning religion are made.4SP 502.4–6

The first beast is the mother of harlots, separate and distinct from her daughters, the Protestant sects.Ms 15, 1850, par. 5–7 Her day of persecuting the saints is past and her power is declining, while the daughters are growing and will soon exercise the power once manifested by the mother.Ms 15, 1850, par. 5–7 Rome meanwhile is silently growing in power in legislative halls, churches, and hearts, waiting for vantage ground to strike.4SP 396.2–397.2 Those who reject truth will seek the aid of the self-styled infallible power to enforce Sunday, and she will readily help them, with the same claim of divine authority without scriptural evidence and the same coercive means repeated against Sabbathkeepers.4SP 396.2–397.2 Religious legislation already enacted shows the closing scenes are here, that the image to the beast is virtually formed, and that only its further prophesied work remains to fully develop it.STBk 71.3

To cause the earth to worship the first beast is for the nation represented by the second beast to use its civil and national authority to enforce a religious observance that gives homage to the papacy.GC 441.2–443.1+2 Its speaking is action by its legislative and judicial authorities, and by enforcing such an observance they contradict professed principles of liberty and religious freedom and develop the intolerance and persecution shown by the dragon and the leopard-like beast.GC 441.2–443.1+2 Those who hear the warning are called to refuse that homage to the beast and his image.Ms 105, 1906, par. 16

That enforced worship is fulfilled when the United States enforces Sunday observance, because Sunday originated with the Roman Church and Rome claims it as the sign and special acknowledgment of her supremacy, so compelled rest on that day directs homage to the power that established it.GC 578.3+3 The deadly wound is the abolition and downfall of the papacy in 1798, and its healing is the restoration of its power, after which it again receives homage in both the Old and New Worlds through honor paid to Sunday and the world again wonders after it.GC 578.3+1 This work belongs to end-time deception in which Satan seeks to change the Sabbath to Sunday and to make human tradition seem more binding than God's commandments, turning people from obedience to God and obstructing His work.Ms 139, 1903, par. 22–25 The distinction between the earth and them which dwell therein is met when Sunday rest is enforced across the land by law, not merely adopted by individuals.4SP 503.1–2

Such enforcement overrides and sets aside the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment, the memorial of creation honoring the Creator, and makes void the law of God.Ms 7a, 1896, par. 10–12+3 The issue is therefore a choice and test between worshiping the true God by keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and submitting to a human-instituted false sabbath that dishonors God.Ms 7a, 1896, par. 10–12 Sunday observance becomes homage to papal authority especially when people who understand the fourth commandment choose it over the Bible Sabbath, and compelling it gives that religious duty the force of civil law.GC88 448.3–4 The first day, a papal institution contrary to the fourth commandment, will be made a test, with worship of the beast and his image bringing the threatened penalty of God's wrath, and the attack on the Sabbath will make it a decisive test opening the way for the third angel's message to be proclaimed with power even though the conflict may threaten property and liberty and require open defense of truth in Christ's spirit and meekness without concession.1T 223.1–2+1

The coercion is carried out by civil laws requiring Sunday rest and by union of church and state in which civil authority enforces church requirements, including by a religious amendment to the United States Constitution and by civil decisions favoring Sunday.4SP 503.3–504.1+1 Efforts to establish the nation as Christian and to give religious practices legal authority are preliminary steps toward the image, which is formed when religious power controls the civil government and uses the state to advance its aims, when Protestant churches seek state support for church institutions and usages and enforce Sunday by secular law.DA 838.4–839.2+1 What was done before will be repeated: as churches that came under Roman rule were forced to set aside the seventh-day Sabbath for Sunday, papists and Protestants will unite to exalt Sunday.4SP 396.2–397.2+2 Protestant churches already pay homage to Rome by accepting the false Sabbath that originated with her, and the spirit of the papacy permeating them leads them to do the same work of Sunday exaltation, opening the door for popery to regain in Protestant America the supremacy she lost in the Old World.4SP 396.2–397.2+1

That united exaltation repeats Rome's past methods with the same claim of divine authority for Sunday keeping without scriptural evidence, the same enmity toward the true Sabbath and its defenders, the same coercive means by stringent laws, and the same assertion that God's judgments fall on men for violating Sunday, so that whoever believes and obeys God's word incurs reproach and persecution.ST Mar 5, 1894+2 Those who reject truth will seek the aid of the self-styled infallible power to enforce Sunday, and Rome, silently growing in power in legislative halls, churches, and hearts and waiting for vantage ground to strike, will readily help them.4SP 396.2–397.2 Rulers place themselves above God by bringing forward the claims of the first day as a false and spurious sabbath and enforcing it by law, uniting with the man of sin to restore his lost ascendancy and cause the religion of the papacy to be accepted.Ms 39, 1899, par. 17–20+1 Kingdoms have confederated to sustain this institution which has not a word of authority in the oracles of God, obedience to the Sabbath instituted by Jehovah is called disloyalty to the laws of the nations, and this enforcement brings national apostasy from the principles of republicanism upon which the government was founded.Ms 39, 1899, par. 17–20+1

Exercising the first beast's power includes forming the image of the beast before probation closes, and that image becomes a great test by which eternal destiny is decided.15MR 15.1–3+1 The image is formed when religious power controls the civil government and uses the state to advance its aims and punish dissent, following the papacy's model of church control over the state, and apostasy in the church prepares the way for it.DA 838.4–839.2+1 It represents apostate Protestantism seeking civil power to enforce its teachings, when Protestant churches seek state support for church institutions and usages and enforce Sunday by secular law, and when the churches of the land unite upon common points of faith and influence the state to enforce their decrees and sustain their institutions.GC 445.2–446.2+2 Efforts to establish the nation as Christian and to give religious practices legal authority, including civil decisions favoring Sunday observance, are preliminary steps toward that image, and when Protestant churches seek secular support following the example of the apostate church their ancestors opposed under fiercest persecution, that national apostasy ends only in national ruin.DA 838.4–839.2+1

The beast's mark is a counterfeit of God's seal, the Sabbath: the counterfeit is worship on the day of the sun opposed to God's Sabbath sign, the forehead means the mind and acceptance in the mind, the hand means action and power, and worship imposed by force differs from the willing allegiance by which God seals His servants in the forehead.4SP 505.2–3+1 Those who remain loyal to God's law and reject the false sabbath receive God's seal, while those who give up heavenly truth and accept Sunday receive the beast's mark.15MR 15.1–3 The prophecy also involves pressure over buying and selling, fulfilled through gigantic monopolies and labor unions and confederacies that bind men in bundles ready to be burned, restrict freedom, deprive neighbors of freedom of action, rob the poorer classes by preventing buying or selling except under certain conditions, and mark those who refuse even to the penalty of refusal with their lives.2MR 179.1–2+2 Belonging to such unions pledges support to that oppression, disregards the entire Decalogue, and makes it impossible to love God with all the heart, love neighbor as self, and keep the commandments.3MR 42.6–43.2+1

The enforced worship is carried forward by masterful temptation, deception, lying wonders, and miracle-working power done in the sight of the beast to try faith as to what sort it is, including spiritualism personating the dead and bringing religious bodies that refuse warning under strong deception, in a union of Protestant churches with papal power and civil power to persecute commandment keepers.Ms 16, 1900, par. 5–6+3 In its final fulfillment Satan appears as an angel of light with great power and heavenly glory, claims to be lord of the whole earth and lord of the first day, declares the Sabbath changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, and presents this spurious sabbath as the test of loyalty to him.Ms 153, 1902, par. 8–10+1 He acts a double part, appearing as dispenser of blessings and divine truths while holding the world by wonders and at the same time causing distress and accusing God's people of causing fearful convulsions of nature, strife, and bloodshed to excite hatred and persecution against them.4SP 444.1 He secures worship to himself by controlling consciences with cruel measures in favor of human creeds and laws in defiance of God's holy law, in contrast to God who never forces will or conscience, and this is fulfilled when earthly powers unite with powers from beneath and with the professed Christian world, including the papal power, fallen churches that rejected light, apostate Protestantism, and spiritualism under Satan personating Christ, who pronounces blessing upon worshipers of the beast and his image.ST Nov 7, 1900+3

This enforced worship belongs to the closing scenes of this earth's history and to the last great warfare, which leaves only two parties upon earth.Ms 16, 1900, par. 5–6+2 On one side stand those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony and faith of Jesus Christ, standing under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ, greatly in the minority as a remnant; on the other stand those who make void the law of God, war against His holy law, and stand under the black banner of rebellion.Ms 16, 1900, par. 5–6+4 That war is carried on by the lamb-like power joining the dragon and using its authority to lead the earth's people to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed, with Protestant churches uniting with papal power and civil authority to persecute the obedient.Ms 16, 1900, par. 5–6+2 It is advanced through deception including spiritualism, through making and worshiping an image of the beast, through killing those who refuse, and through forcing all to receive a mark in order to buy or sell.Ms 16, 1900, par. 5–6+2 While professing lamb-like character and alliance with heaven, these false religious powers reveal by action a dragon heart, instigated by and united with the satanic power that made war in heaven for supremacy and was expelled, and as the close of time nears there is greater external parade of heathen power with heathen deities manifesting signal power before the cities of the world, already begun to be fulfilled.18MR 29.1–30.2

It stands in a connected sequence of past, present, and future events continuing through Revelation 14:5 and ending with the complete redemption of the 144,000, who gain victory over the beast and its image.WLF 10.4 Its place is before the very last call to the churches in Revelation 18 that is now to be given, and before the time pictured in Revelation 19 when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into a lake of fire.Ms 75, 1906, par. 16 After that follows the binding of the dragon who instigated rebellion against heaven in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, then the resurrection of the wicked and the final destruction of Satan and all the wicked, and the final triumph and reign of Christ on this earth.Ms 75, 1906, par. 16 Its power, deception, wonders, miracles, and oppression, with its number 666 as the last oppressive power treading down God's true church, will be especially evident in its final struggle during the seven last plagues shortly before it comes to its end.WLF 8.4 This power's defeat precedes Michael's standing up to deliver His people.WLF 8.4

In that closing conflict with the Image Beast the believers will face fear and distress like Jacob when he learned that Esau was coming with four hundred men, with the threat of death for refusing to worship the image bringing this parallel.WLF 9.5–6 Those who remain loyal to God will have their support cut off, will be forbidden to buy or sell, and will face a decree of death for refusing the imposed worship.14MR 90.3–91.4+2 The coercion includes loss of liberty, legal punishment, imprisonment, forced labor, and even death for choosing the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment over a human-instituted false sabbath, with churches and the world united in trampling upon God's commandments and threatening with death all who obey His precepts.Ms 7a, 1896, par. 10–12+2 Yet though threatened, the saints will not be killed, but will be delivered by the voice of God before hostile decrees bring forth or bear fruit.WLF 9.5–6+1 The faithful ultimately overcome the beast, its image, and its mark, and stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion and on the sea of glass, bearing the Father's name instead of the beast's mark and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.5T 752.3

Upon the apostate deceiving power that deceives the inhabitants of the earth, causes them to believe fatal lies presented as truth, and causes the earth to worship the first beast, and upon all who by decree worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in forehead or hand, the judgment proclaimed by the third angel will be executed.Lt 183, 1902, par. 8–9+2 That penalty is to drink the wine of the wrath of God without mixture and torment with fire and brimstone, set against obedience to God's law in the conflict over the first day of the week as a papal institution contrary to the fourth commandment made a test.Lt 183, 1902, par. 8–9+2 When the United States restricts religious liberty, abjures the principles of Protestantism, and by a national act gives countenance and vigor to the corrupt faith of Rome, it joins the power that leads people to worship the first beast.ST Mar 22, 1910+2 That union of Protestant America with the state to enforce a false religion of Sunday observance in place of the Bible Sabbath forms an image to the Papacy, arouses papal tyranny which only waits for a touch to start again into cruelty and despotism, fills the measure of the nation's guilt as national apostasy, and ends only in national ruin.ST Mar 22, 1910+2

In that crisis nominal churches and nominal Adventists will like Judas betray the obscure saints to the Catholics to obtain Catholic influence against them.Ms 15, 1850, par. 5–7 They will report them as those who disregard the institution of the pope because they keep the Sabbath and disregard Sunday.Ms 15, 1850, par. 5–7 Then at Catholic bidding the Protestants will issue a decree that all who will not observe the first day of the week instead of the seventh shall be slain, with the Catholics with their large numbers standing by the Protestants and giving their power to the image of the beast, and Protestants will work as their mother worked to destroy the saints.Ms 15, 1850, par. 5–7

This verse applies to this time and lays out in clear lines the position of God's people in regard to Sunday laws.Ms 23, 1889, par. 4–6 It belongs to the prophetic picture of last-day forces working against God and deceiving people, as God's warning to His people about the perils and dangers before them in the last conflict.Ms 32, 1896, par. 34–37+1 It shows a people working counter to God and a company that has been deceived, at a time when Satan works through both church and state to oppose God's work, so that God's people must rely on Him and counter that work faithfully.17MR 18.2–4+1

It belongs to the closing scenes of this earth's history and to the third angel's message which combines the first and the second messages and binds them up with the third.Ms 55, 1895, par. 14–16 It shows the great and last warfare between two classes — those who keep the commandments of God and those who make void the law of God.Ms 55, 1895, par. 14–16 It is a communication for all who live in these last days and must be read carefully and prayerfully with John 15 and Revelation 14:8-10 and Revelation 12:17 to be understood.Ms 55, 1895, par. 14–16 It defines the work of lifting up the standard of truth and proclaiming the last message of mercy, while opposing teachers teach fables to counteract the message of truth declared by all who love God and keep His commandments.Ms 55, 1895, par. 14–16

The second beast uses its authority to lead the people of the earth to worship the first beast, and in the approaching crisis this power is manifested in the United States through religious intolerance and a union of church and state enforcing Sunday observance, bringing persecution against those who keep God's commandments.GC88 605.3 The warnings about this development had been dismissed as groundless, but as Sunday enforcement is widely debated, the predicted event is seen to be drawing near and the third angel's message will have an effect it could not have had before.GC88 605.3 This attack on the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will make the Sabbath a decisive test in the last days and open the way for the third angel's message to be proclaimed with power.Ms 48, 1891, par. 22–23

Exercising all the power of the first beast and causing the earth to worship the first beast means bringing persecution upon God's people because they keep holy the seventh day, through lamb-like religious powers that profess alliance with heaven and claim the gentleness of a lamb but by their acts reveal the heart of a dragon because they are instigated and controlled by Satan.Ms 135, 1902, par. 15–16 Satan caused the change of the Sabbath to make God's commands of less force than human laws, and the man of sin who thought to change times and laws and has always oppressed God's people will cause laws enforcing observance of the first day of the week.Ms 135, 1902, par. 15–16 Those who hear the warning are called to refuse that homage to the beast and his image, and God's people are to stand firm, with the Lord working for them and showing plainly that He is the God of gods.Ms 135, 1902, par. 15–16+1 Though the conflict may threaten property and liberty, the truth must be openly defended in the spirit and meekness of Christ, without concessions to the power.Ms 48, 1891, par. 22–23 When the United States abandons Protestant principles and uses legislation to support Romanism and restrict religious liberty, bringing the tyranny of Rome against God's commandment-keeping people, God intervenes for the faithful, and Christ is their refuge.7MR 52.2

In the last days the power of the second beast works through labor unions and confederacies and gigantic monopolies controlled by the cruel power of Satan, binding men up in bundles ready to be burned as one of the signs of the last days and one of Satan's last efforts.3MR 42.6–43.2+1 A few men combine to grasp all the means in certain lines of business, men bind themselves together, and those who refuse to join are marked men made to feel that power even to the penalty of refusal with their lives.4MR 75.1–76.1 To belong to them means to pledge support and service to what deprives neighbors of freedom of action and robs the poorer classes of advantages that justly belong to them by preventing buying or selling except under certain conditions, which means to disregard the entire Decalogue and makes it impossible to love God with all the heart and neighbor as self and to keep the commandments of God.3MR 42.6–43.2+1 Because of this oppression God's people must come out from the world and get out of the cities and take their work out of the cities and isolate themselves from the world, and God will care for those who love Him and keep His commandments.3MR 42.6–43.2+1

This enforced worship is part of the enemy's plan of battle for the final test in the closing conflict of the great controversy near the close of the struggle between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness, carried forward by masterful temptation and deception through miracle-working power done in the sight of the beast, which will try faith as to what sort it is.Ms 143, 1901, par. 31–37 Against this covering of darkness the Lord will manifest converting power like the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days of the early disciples, preparing a people to stand the final test.Ms 143, 1901, par. 31–37

The closing scenes of this world's history are here, with religious legislation already enacted making clear the present position, that the image to the beast is virtually formed and only its further prophesied work remains to fully develop.STBk 71.3 The spirit of the dragon is manifest, marking a new era when everything moves with before-unknown rapidity and placing the greatest responsibility ever on the gospel ministry in proportion to the great light received.STBk 71.3 The persecuting power of Rome will unite with Protestant powers, bringing coming events that will make the work of warning the world more difficult.Lt 296, 1903, par. 4–5