13:4Revelation 13:4

The dragon is Satan first of all and pagan Rome in a secondary sense, while the beast is the papacy succeeding to the power, seat and authority of the ancient Roman Empire.GC88 439.1+2 To honor the beast's authority in place of God is to worship the dragon who empowers it, accepting the great deceiver as God and becoming filled with his spirit.14MR 90.3–91.4+2 The cry of unmatched greatness and invincibility expresses the world's amazement, admiration and submission before the beast's recovered power, upheld by Satan's miracle-working through his agents.Ms 88, 1897, par. 15–17+2 That worship reaches its final fulfillment when Satan appears as an angel of light claiming to be lord of the whole earth, declaring the Sabbath changed to the first day and presenting that spurious sabbath as the test of loyalty to him.Ms 153, 1902, par. 8–10+2 The enforcement centers on a false Sunday sabbath opposing God's seventh-day memorial of creation, with the mark received in the forehead by mental consent or in the hand by compelled action, in direct opposition to God's seal.Ms 7a, 1896, par. 10–12+4 The verse thus divides the world into two classes, those who worship the dragon, the beast and his image and those who keep God's commandments, and the third angel warns that those who join that worship will drink the wine of God's wrath without mixture.WLF 10.4+4

The dragon who gives power to the beast is Satan primarily and pagan Rome secondarily, while the beast is the papacy, which succeeded to the power, seat, and authority of the ancient Roman Empire.GC88 439.1+1 The worship of the beast belongs to the class opposed to those who keep God's commandments and have the faith of Jesus.GC 438.1–439.2 The dragon remains the hidden source of the beast's power, working through this earthly instrument after pagan Rome, so that the worship and authority directed toward the beast are directed toward Satan through it.GC88 679.3–680.3

The beast is a power through the ages appearing under different forms, and under its dominant head in the period described it represents the papacy.DA 837.3–4 It was upheld by many nations and inherited the power of the four empires represented by Daniel's beasts.4SP 502.2–3 From pagan Rome, understood as the dragon, it received civil power, the city of Rome as its seat, and great authority.4SP 502.4–6+1 By union of church and state it became persecuting, as a church controlling the state and using its power to punish dissent from its doctrines.DA 837.3–4+1 It exercised that persecuting power for 1,260 years before going into captivity, showing the wider danger that unions of church and state crush those who oppose them.DA 837.3–4

To worship the beast is to worship the dragon who empowers it, for honoring the beast's authority in place of God is allegiance to Satan through this earthly instrument.14MR 90.3–91.4+1 This is demon-worship, in which people accept the first great deceiver as God and become filled with his spirit, while the world stands on the brink of perdition.6T 14.4–15.1 In the conflict of the chapter this worship is set against worship of God and the seventh-day Sabbath, being enforced by a persecuting power that demands observance of the Sunday institution.14MR 90.3–91.4

The cry of who is like the beast and who is able to make war with him expresses the world's amazement at the beast's recovery and power and its admiration, submission, and acclaim of the beast as seemingly unmatched and unconquerable.Ms 88, 1897, par. 15–17+2 That worship belongs to the great final conflict in which the whole world will take part and whose issue is the Sabbath question.Ms 88, 1897, par. 15–17 It is supported by Satan's miracle-working power used to support his claims, working through his agents to lead the world after the beast.Ms 93, 1907, par. 15–24

In the final crisis this boast of likeness and invincibility appears as the taunts of the wicked against God's people as a little, feeble, small-numbered, poor and stricken people standing apart from all the world and in defiance of the laws of the land.Lt 6, 1884, par. 2–4 They ridicule their weakness, abject poverty and stricken condition, charge that they are dependent on the world and cannot live without it, threaten to destroy them, and cut off their resources so they cannot buy or sell, so that appearances are awfully against those pleading God's promises in weeping and prayer.Lt 6, 1884, par. 2–4 At that time the whole world is converted and in harmony with the Sunday law and worships the beast.Lt 6, 1884, par. 2–4 That worship is upheld by claims to have the truth and to have miracles, great power and signs and wonders among them, to have angels from heaven talking and walking with them including Satan personating the dead as heavenly messengers, and by declaring that this universal harmony is the temporal millennium long expected.Lt 6, 1884, par. 2–4

The leopard-like beast, joined with the great red dragon and the beast with lamb-like horns, tramples upon God's law and persecutes His people in a war carried forward to the close of time against the people of God, who exist in the last days only as a remnant keeping the commandments of God.4SP 275.2–276.1 The worship of the beast belongs to the pattern where religious authority seeks civil power to advance its ends, repeated when the image of the beast has religious power control government so that the state enforces the church's demands.GC 443.2–5 What the beast represents must be understood in order to grasp the third angel's solemn warning against worshiping the beast and his image and receiving his mark.4SP 275.2–276.1

Revelation 13:4 reaches its final fulfillment in the last days when Satan appears as an angel of light with great power and heavenly glory and claims to be lord of the whole earth.Ms 153, 1902, par. 8–10+1 In that impersonation the worship of the dragon is worship of Satan himself, and the worship of the beast is submission to him in that same impersonation.Ms 153, 1902, par. 8–10+1 The acclaim of his likeness and invincibility expresses the world's admiration for and submission to that power.Ms 153, 1902, par. 8–10

In that impersonation he declares the Sabbath changed from the seventh to the first day of the week and, as lord of the first day, presents this spurious sabbath as a test of loyalty to him.Ms 153, 1902, par. 8–10+1 He seeks to be received as God or placed above God, and through human agents and human traditions he leads people to disregard God's commands, including by that change of the Sabbath to the first day.Ms 153, 1902, par. 8–10+1 God's people are therefore called to recognize this deception and remain loyal to God's law.Ms 139, 1903, par. 22–25

This worship belongs to the great final conflict over the Sabbath question in which the whole world will take part and act a part, and this worldwide worship will surely take place.Ms 88, 1897, par. 15–17+1 The dragon empowering the beast and the people worshiping both while declaring the beast seemingly unmatched and unconquerable is part of that conflict whose issue is the Sabbath question.Ms 88, 1897, par. 15–17+1 It belongs to Revelation 12 to 18, which are being fulfilled now as the last message of warning all are to hear, and to the closing scenes of this earth's history bound up with the third angel's message combining the first and second messages.Ms 75, 1906, par. 16+1 There 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, a communication for all living in these last days to be read carefully and prayerfully to be understood.Ms 55, 1895, par. 14–16

All classes except the little flock will unite to exalt Sunday and enforce it upon all by stringent laws and decree, a position laid out in clear lines for God's people for this time in regard to Sunday laws.4SP 501.3–502.1+1 Churches and the world are united in trampling upon God's commandments in the last period of earth's history, and threaten with death all who obey His precepts.Ms 48, 1900, par. 16–18 Close at hand is a fearful confederacy and brotherhood begun by Satan in which unholy human powers combine with demon forces and all are moved by satanic impulses.Ms 154, 1899, par. 2 Satan has come down with great power and is now gathering the hosts who will speak his words in worship of the beast, so from now until the close of earth's history every soul must meet this danger by taking hold of Christ's strength and making peace with God, falling into the hands of the living God and not into the hands of men.Ms 154, 1899, par. 2

The choice is between worshiping God and worshiping the beast and the dragon who empowers it, and the beast's worship is enforced through a false sabbath opposing the seventh-day Sabbath, God's memorial of creation, with commandment-keeping people facing persecution for refusing it.Ms 7a, 1896, par. 10–12+1 People worship the dragon through worship of the beast whose power and apparent invincibility they acclaim, while a persecuting power demands observance of the Sunday institution set against worship of God and the seventh-day Sabbath.Ms 7a, 1896, par. 10–12+1 The wondering after the beast is the disloyal Protestant world joining the man of sin's persevering work with marvelous perseverance to exalt a spurious sabbath, calling obedience to the Sabbath instituted by Jehovah disloyalty to the laws of the nations, with kingdoms confederated to sustain a false sabbath institution which has not a word of authority in the oracles of God.Ms 39, 1899, par. 17–20+1 This fulfills in the momentous period just before the great conflict when the world is corrupted under its inhabitants.Ms 39, 1899, par. 17–20+1 Human authorities set aside God's law and put human laws in its place in union of civil and religious powers promoting Sunday laws as religious duty, whereas God's people show loyalty by keeping His day of rest.Ms 166, 1902, par. 1–2

That union discards the seventh-day Sabbath to exalt Sunday in its place, with Satan blinding and controlling all human minds that receive his lies.Ms 19, 1894, par. 10–12 The professed Christian world is led to accept as true a spurious sabbath, an idol first day of the week and child of the papacy nourished and cherished by Protestants.Ms 19, 1894, par. 10–12 This tears down God's memorial of creation, hallowed and sanctified at creation, sustained by the miracle of the manna, and proclaimed at Mount Sinai in the very bosom of the Decalogue, and exalts a common working day in its place in disloyalty to the only true and living God.Ms 19, 1894, par. 10–12

Worshipers of the beast receive his mark in their foreheads or in their hands, where the forehead means the intellect or mind and the hand means power, so the mark is received by mental consent or by yielded action under compulsion.4SP 505.2–3+1 Compulsory worship is not acceptable to God but is acceptable to wicked powers and has always been craved by the Romish hierarchy.4SP 505.2–3 The mark is in direct opposition to the sign and seal of God, which is His Sabbath, and is a counterfeit Sabbath on the day of the sun representing worship contrary to the Sabbath and imposed through compulsory worship.4SP 505.2–3+1 Those who refuse the mark keep the commandments of God including the Sabbath and bear God's sign instead, for God's servants receive His seal in the mind, not by compulsion.4SP 505.2–3+1

The verse thus marks one of the two classes on earth when Christ comes: those who worship the dragon's power and the beast and his image, in contrast with those who keep God's commandments and have the faith and testimony of Jesus.WLF 10.4+1 The beast and its image are the powers of chapter 13 over which the 144,000 gain victory in a connected sequence of past, present, and future events continuing through the first five verses of chapter 14 and ending with their complete redemption standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion.WLF 10.4

The third angel warns that anyone who joins that worship of the beast and his image enforced by decree and receives his mark in forehead or hand will drink the wine of the wrath of God poured without mixture and be tormented with fire and brimstone with no rest day nor night.Lt 183, 1902, par. 8–9 The verse warns of perils in the last days when people work against God and deceive others as part of a deceived company working counter to God.Ms 32, 1896, par. 34–37+1 Satan gathering hosts to speak his words in worship of the beast is that fearful confederacy of unholy human powers with demon forces moved by satanic impulses.Ms 154, 1899, par. 2

The papacy will appear in its power standing on the borders of the greatest event in history, just before the time of trouble when the world stands on the borders of that event.Lt 54, 1906, par. 9+2 At that same time God appoints a message swelling into a loud cry, while Satan seeks power over God's people through church and state and human traditions bringing opposition and causing them to sleep.Ms 7a, 1896, par. 10–12+2 Satan must not have that power to cause them to sleep on, so all regardless of status must awake and arouse and search the Scriptures, take hold of Christ's strength and make peace with God.Ms 7a, 1896, par. 10–12+3 God will make known to His faithful ones what shall be in the last time, and the word of the Lord is to come to His people in power, presenting the conflict as a choice of ruler and allegiance between God and the beast with its false sabbath opposing God's memorial of creation.Ms 7a, 1896, par. 10–12+2