Revelation 13:8, commentary and pictures

All who live on earth will give worship and homage to the leopard-like beast, which is the papacy succeeding to the power, seat, and authority of pagan Rome. All will do so except those whose names are written in the book of life of the Lamb, so that only two decided classes remain in opposition to the close of time. The Lamb is Christ, whose being slain from the foundation of the world means His death for sin was appointed and pledged before the world was created as part of God's plan of redemption. That worldwide worship centers on the Sabbath question in the great final conflict between keeping God's commandments and making them void, between the seventh-day Sabbath and the spurious Sunday sabbath exalted by papal authority. Worshipers of the beast receive his mark in forehead as mental agreement or in hand as outward compliance under force, in direct opposition to God's seal in His law, which is His Sabbath in the fourth commandment.

The Beast It Portrays

The leopard-like beast is the papacy succeeding to the power and seat and authority of pagan Rome. It is the church that received civil power and the city of Rome and great authority from pagan Rome. The beast power takes different forms through the ages, with the papacy as its dominant head in the period described. It inherits the power of Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome and is upheld by many nations. As a church power joined to the state it uses civil authority to punish dissent and to trample God's law and to persecute His people.

This power blasphemes God and His name and His tabernacle and those dwelling in heaven. It makes war with the saints and overcomes them and rules over all kindreds and tongues and nations. It deceives the inhabitants of the earth and causes them to believe fatal lies presented as truth. Its rule over God's people lasted the prophesied 42 months or 1,260 days, connected with the 1,260 days of Daniel 7. That period ran from A.D. 538 to 1798, ending when the pope was taken captive and the papal power received its deadly wound and went into captivity.

A later beast enforces worship of the first beast's image through deceptive signs. Both powers act as Satan's agents in worship and deception under a professed or appealing outward form and in opposition to God. The image forms when apostate Protestantism seeks civil power to enforce its teachings, so that a religious power controls civil government and uses state authority to enforce its aims in place of God's law. Apostasy prepares the way for this union and coercion. The chapter's message was given by Christ to John for God's people and is to be shared without human wisdom or tradition mixed into it.

Worship and the Book of Life

All who live on earth will give worship to the beast except those whose names are written, and those not written, in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That worship is the homage paid to the papacy, and it will be rendered in both the Old and New Worlds until the close of time through honor given to Sunday, which rests on the authority of the Roman Church. The warning against that worship is a matter for the interest of all to hear.

This leaves only two classes in the world standing in decided opposition to one another, those who worship God and keep His commandments and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image. The worshipers of the beast will persecute those who keep the commandments of God, with members of the Roman Catholic church and of the Protestant churches uniting against the remnant people of God. This is the great and last warfare between those who keep the commandments of God and those who make void the law of God.

The verse belongs to a connected sequence of past, present, and future events that continues through the first five verses of Revelation 14 and ends with the complete redemption of the 144,000. The worldwide false worship is enforced by united church and state compelling all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive the mark of the beast. Yet the people of God will not receive it but will get the victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass with the harps of God singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.

Names are written in the Lamb's book of life according to oneness with Christ, not according to social rank, wealth, or learning. The unlearned, outcast, or enslaved person who cherishes the light and opportunities given by God is precious to Him and is not to be rejected as a companion by those whose names are written there. Names are registered there when souls are born again and brought back from wandering away from God, which is the most valuable blessing and the cause for rejoicing over fresh tokens of saving grace.

The worshipers of the beast receive his mark in their foreheads or in their hands. The forehead means the intellect or mind, so the mark there is mental agreement, and the hand means power, so the mark there is outward compliance under force. God seals His servants only in their foreheads, because compulsory worship is not acceptable to Him, while compulsory worship is acceptable to wicked powers and has always been craved by the Romish hierarchy.

The mark stands in direct opposition to the sign or seal of God, which is His Sabbath in the fourth precept of His law. It is allegiance to papal authority expressed through obedience to its laws in place of God's law, especially the changed Sabbath commandment, as a counterfeit Sabbath on the day of the sun. Those who refuse the mark keep the commandments of God and the Sabbath of the Lord and have His sign or seal, and for keeping it they will suffer persecution, while those who enforce the mark will suffer the wrath of God and then realize the importance of the Sabbath, the seal of the living God.

The apostate power blasphemes God and His name and His tabernacle and those that dwell in heaven, makes war with the saints and overcomes them, receives power over all kindreds and tongues and nations, and deceives the inhabitants of the earth and causes them to believe fatal lies presented as truth. The judgment appointed in the great day will be executed upon all who so deceive.

The Lamb Slain Eternally

The Lamb is Christ, and His being slain from the foundation of the world means His death for sin was appointed and pledged from before the world and the earth were created as part of God's plan of redemption. He pledged to give His life as a ransom if humanity turned from loyalty to God, and the sacrifice had to be offered, for otherwise no son or daughter of Adam could be saved. The many bleeding sacrifices required in the old dispensation were given to keep this truth before men and imprint it on mind and heart, that without shedding of blood there is no remission. Every bleeding sacrifice pointed to Christ as the One who takes away the sin of the world, for Christ Himself established the Jewish system of worship in which spiritual and heavenly things were shadowed forth by types and symbols. Many forgot the true significance of the offerings and lost the truth that forgiveness comes through Christ alone, for the multiplying of sacrifices and the blood of bulls and goats in itself could not take away sin.

Before the earth was created the Father and Son held long, mysterious counsel together for fallen men while the host of heaven watched with interest beyond words. With clasped hands they entered the solemn covenant pledge that Christ would become the surety for the human race if overcome by Satan's sophistry, so Christ was not alone in making His great sacrifice but fulfilled the covenant made between Him and His Father before the world was made. Even for the King of the universe it was a struggle to yield up His Son to die for the guilty race. It reveals the mystery of redemption in God loving a world that did not love Him and giving His only Son so that whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life, a love that passes knowledge and that immortal minds will wonder at and adore through endless ages.

His offering was voluntary and infinite, for He was not compelled to leave the heavenly courts, throne, royal robe, kingly crown, and unsurpassed glory enshrouding His person. By His own choice He came to a life of humiliation to be rejected by sinful men, despised, hated, abused, scourged, bruised, wounded, and crucified, and by His own choice He died in the presence of an assembled nation where type met antitype. In the presence of the Creator under unsurpassed glory, angels reject as treason the proposition that anything good and holy and noble and lovely in man acts any part in merit in the salvation of the soul, showing that nothing good and holy in man has any part of merit in salvation. As the Passover sacrificed for us, priest and victim combined, He entered the Temple as the place of sacrifice and gave His body to be rent for the transgression of the world. After enduring humiliation, shame, reproach, crucifixion, and burial He was raised from the grave triumphing over death, a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Calvary reveals the Father's immeasurable love, expressed in giving Jesus as the propitiation for human sin. The Son of God was given to die before the foundation of the world as part of God's plan of redemption, and redemption is part of God's nature, for He reconstructs rather than destroys. The cross reveals God's compassion, forgiveness, love, patience, and longsuffering to sinners, showing them their need of a sin-pardoning Saviour. Christ alone is the Advocate and Intercessor able to pardon sin, representing before God those in whom He has restored God's moral image.

He is the center of the great plan of redemption covering all dispensations and the Redeemer of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam in all ages of human probation. Being slain from the foundation of the world means the plan of saving sinners through Christ alone was the same in the days of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and every successive generation before the advent of Christ as it is now, first preached to Adam as the only door of hope and life. People before His coming looked forward in faith to the promised Redeemer, represented by their sacrifices, while Christians trust in the Redeemer who has come and died, so the gospel was good news to people in every generation. Christ is the substance that cast its shadow back into former dispensations, looked forward to in faith by patriarchs, prophets, and all holy martyrs from righteous Abel through sacrificial offerings of beasts pointing to His death on the cross, with type meeting antitype at the crucifixion when the shadowy system made necessary by transgression of the moral code ceased.

Provision for forgiveness of sin through His offered life was made from Adam's transgression onward, when death was proclaimed as the penalty of sin. The promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head was the first proclamation of the gospel, and from that time men could always say, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Christ became substitute and surety and Redeemer and Intercessor, offering His life for the life of the world to give man a second probation and power to form character after the divine image, without lessening sin's hateful character or the obligation of the law. Though Satan's forces appeared to triumph at the cross, Christ's suffering and death defeated the powers of earth and hell, broke Satan's hold over those enslaved to his rule, and restored humanity from the ruin brought by temptation and sin. By His perfect obedience to God's law Christ placed humanity on restored ground, and by completing His work of redemption He overcame Satan and showed that obedience to God's law is possible, so that through Christ people become more than conquerors and repentant believers receive Christ's righteousness and become friends of God brought back to loyalty and obedience.

God opened this appointment from the beginning to Abraham in his most severe test, when Abraham prepared in faith to obey the command to kill his son. As Abraham grasped the promise by faith, Christ revealed Himself to him, so Abraham saw the Saviour coming in human flesh and rejoiced, for Jesus is the Just One appointed from the beginning of the world as the sacrifice for the sins of the human race. His life, death, resurrection, ministry, and future glory open the meaning and riches of the Old Testament Scriptures. No other light has ever shone or ever will shine upon fallen man except what has been and shall be given through Him, so by faith eyes are to be kept on Him as Mediator and as High Priest ministering in heaven for fallen people. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, soon to ride forth conquering and to conquer, beheld by John on Patmos in His glorified person when the future of the church and of the world was opened to him.

His blood is pardoning blood inseparably connected with His resurrection and life. Its efficacy is ever flowing and ever cleansing, like a stream of living water proceeding from the throne of God as the water of the river of life, and like the fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem where sinners may wash clean from every stain of sin. Death and life are blended in this atonement, illustrated by the bird slain over living water and the living bird dipped in its blood then set free to joyous life. As Mediator He constantly intercedes for man by presenting His blood, shed from the foundation of the world, while the Holy Spirit pleads differently by working upon human hearts to draw out prayers and penitence, praise and thanksgiving, striking the cords of the soul in holy memories and awakening the music of the heart that flows from the lips as gratitude.

His blood provides the white character robes, which represent a life of purity and holiness distinct from the life of the world. Without the shedding of His blood there is no remission of sins, foreshadowed by the sacrifices of the tabernacle and by the slain Passover lamb whose blood on the door saved Israel from death. The virtue of the blood of the crucified and risen Saviour is the sinner's only hope, for salvation comes only through the merits of the Redeemer, who tasted death for all and is received through faith in His name. The cleansing power of the blood and the lifted-up Saviour must be kept central in every discourse. He is worthy of praise forever, and in eternity the saved, purchased by His blood, will stand in white raiment, cast their glittering crowns at the feet of Jesus, and with immortal tongues give praises to God and the Lamb forever declaring His worthiness.

Hearing even one such saved voice praising God and the Lamb will repay all sacrifices made on earth to win souls. The redeemed sing a song declaring His worthiness when sanctified in soul and body and spirit and fitted for the heavenly courts, at the moment the finishing touch of immortality is put upon them. The same song can be carried every day now by those who lay hold of the might of Christ and are made powerful in His strength in meekness and lowliness with love for heaven. His all-sufficient sacrifice is to be looked to intently and undividedly, and looking to Him with repentance and confession of sin and true remorse of soul brings gladness of heart, a sense of His sacrifice, and the realization of pardon and forgiveness, so that lips defiled with sin express the loftiest praise to Him. The Lamb has a book of life where names are registered when souls are born again and brought back from wandering away from God, which is the most valuable blessing God bestows and the cause for the voice of rejoicing and salvation in the tabernacle of the righteous over fresh tokens of saving grace.

Types and Sacrifices Fulfilled

Christ himself established the Jewish system of worship in which spiritual and heavenly things were shadowed forth by types and symbols, and he himself was the foundation of the system of sacrifices and offerings given to the church in its infancy. The many bleeding sacrifices required in the old dispensation were given to keep this truth before men and imprint it on mind and heart, that without shedding of blood there is no remission and that forgiveness of sin comes through Christ alone who takes away the sin of the world, with every bleeding sacrifice pointing to his death on the cross. Many forgot the true significance of the offerings and lost that truth, for the multiplying of sacrifices and the blood of bulls and goats in itself could not take away sin. Every sacrifice pointed to him and prefigured his death that all might understand the wages of sin is death, for in him was no sin yet he died for our sins. He is the substance that cast its shadow back into former dispensations, looked forward to in faith by patriarchs, prophets and all holy martyrs from righteous Abel through sacrificial offerings of beasts.

The ancient prophecies, types and figures represented him, and their meaning is seen by comparing them with the facts of his life, death and resurrection to show fulfillment in him. His death fulfilled them and brought the typical forms and symbols to their end, so that the shadowy system made necessary by transgression of the moral code ceased and the Jewish forms were made obsolete and abolished. Abel offered his sacrifice by faith in the Lamb sacrificed from the foundation of the world, exercising the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. By that faith he obtained witness that he was righteous, for God accepted his offering and sent fire from heaven to consume it. That same faith requires deeper trust, a softened and subdued heart, and cooperation with Christ, with facilities given by Christ to work in it.

The sacrifices of the tabernacle and the slain Passover lamb whose blood on the door saved Israel from death foreshadowed him as the sacrifice appointed from the foundation of the world. Without the shedding of his blood there is no remission of sins, and the virtue of the blood of the crucified and risen Saviour is the sinner's only hope, with salvation coming only through the merits of the Redeemer who tasted death for all and is received through faith in his name. At his death type met antitype, for the sacrifices pointed forward to him and his death fulfilled their type. At the moment he cried It is finished and died, the temple veil was torn from top to bottom, showing the way into the Holiest was open and declaring that God's presence was no longer revealed in the Most Holy Place. There was an end to all sacrifices and offerings, and the way into the Holiest of all was laid open as a new and living way with no veil between, so that all may enter and sinful humanity no longer needs to await the coming of an earthly high priest.

Final Crisis Over Worship

Revelation 13:4-8 is a sure prophecy of what will take place, showing that the Sabbath question will be the issue in the great final conflict in which all the world will act a part, with all that dwell on the earth worshiping the beast except those written in the book of life. The chapter presents a worldwide choice between worshiping God and worshiping the beast, and that choice is the conflict between the seventh-day Sabbath as the memorial of creation and the Sunday institution. Those who exalt the false sabbath join in the beast's worship, while every person must take sides for God or against Him, the beast compelling worship by enforcing a humanly instituted false sabbath while God's loyal people keep His commandments and honor the seventh-day Sabbath.

The papacy will receive worship and homage throughout the world in both the Old and New Worlds until the close of time, through honor paid to Sunday observance, which rests on the authority of the Roman Church. Nearly all the world unites with the man of sin in disloyalty to the only true and living God by discarding the seventh-day Sabbath and exalting Sunday in its place. That seventh day was hallowed and sanctified at creation, its validity sustained by the miracle of the manna, and its sacredness proclaimed in the commandments given on Mount Sinai in the very bosom of the Decalogue, but it is cast aside for a spurious first-day sabbath, an idol set up by the papal power and nourished and cherished by the Protestant world. This worldwide false worship continues Satan's deceptive work from Eden, blinding the professed Christian world so the false takes the place of the true, leading people to refuse the Word of God as it reads and to choose Satan's lies rather than a Thus saith the Lord, and making obedience hard for Sabbathkeepers who see before them only loss and starvation.

Its final fulfillment comes 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. He will declare that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, and as lord of the first day he will present this spurious sabbath as a test of loyalty to him. The worship of the beast is this false loyalty to him, rendered by all that dwell upon the earth whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In that fulfillment all classes on earth except the little flock will unite to exalt Sunday and enforce its observance on all by stringent laws. Revelation 13 describes that persecuting power when the churches and the world are united in trampling upon God's commandments, and all who obey His precepts are threatened with death.

All who dwell on earth whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb will worship the beast, leaving only two classes in the world in decided opposition to one another: those who worship God and keep His commandments and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image. The worshipers of the beast will persecute those who keep the commandments of God, and members of the Roman Catholic church and of the Protestant churches will unite against the remnant people of God. This worldwide false worship is enforced by united church and state compelling all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive the mark of the beast, yet the people of God will not receive it and will get the victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass with the harps of God singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. This is the end-time reign of antichrist, when religious and civil powers unite, human laws take the place of God's law, and Satan rules through a vast, organized system of evil, with Sunday laws imposed under the name of religion set against God's people showing loyalty by keeping His day of rest.

The papacy appears in its power on the borders of the greatest event in the world's history when the time of trouble is near. By God's appointment a message will swell into a loud cry to meet that power, and the word of the Lord will come to His people in power and make known to His faithful ones what shall be in the last time. All must now arouse and search the Scriptures, with the attention of the churches aroused, and must not allow Satan to have power over them to cause them to sleep on. The worship that the beast and his image will enforce by decree is warned against by the third angel's message against joining in that worship of the beast and his image and receiving his mark.

The prophecy lays out in clear lines the position of the people of God for this time in regard to Sunday laws, belonging to the closing scenes of this earth's history and to the proclamation of the third angel's message, which combines the first and second messages. It shows the great and last warfare between those who keep the commandments of God and those who make void the law of God, and it is for all who live in these last days, to be read carefully and prayerfully with the instruction about loving God by keeping His commandments and with the messages of Revelation 12 and Revelation 14. It defines the work of lifting up the standard of truth and declaring the last message of mercy while opposing teachers teach fables to counteract it, as God's warning of the perils before His people in the last days, showing things that will be and a people working counter to God who have been deceived. The prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 are being fulfilled now as the last message of warning that all are to hear, leading to the very last call to the churches in Revelation 18, now to be given.

That fulfillment leads on to the time when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into a lake of fire, the dragon who instigated the great rebellion against heaven is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, followed by the resurrection of the wicked and the final destruction of Satan and all the wicked and the final triumph and reign of Christ in this earth. Satan boasts that he will get the whole world under his banner in worship, leaving only a little handful who believe the Sabbath, so that none can resist the whole world. Satan and his angels are fixing it up all the time and preparing it, and affliction and sorrow and distress will be brought all at once upon God's people and spring upon them unawares. Therefore believers must do the very best they can to enlighten the world while it can still be done, and must not remain easy and satisfied but take hold to be laborers together with God.

Warning and Call to Readiness

The verse is part of the warning against worshiping that power, for the beast is the Papacy, and all earth's inhabitants who worship it are those whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It places that worship in a worldwide conflict and distinguishes its worshipers from those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life, warning that to take part in beast worship carries grave consequences. The beast rises out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and ten crowns and blasphemous names, and is given power to make war with the saints and to overcome them and to rule over all kindreds and tongues and nations. The command that if any have an ear let him hear means it is for the interest of all to hear this warning.

The Papacy appears in its power standing upon the borders of the greatest event in the world's history. At that time Satan seeks power over the people of God by causing them to sleep on. All must now arouse and search the Scriptures, and the churches must have their attention aroused. God will make known to His faithful ones what shall be in the last time, and the word of the Lord will come to His people in power.

The people of God must awake to this reality when the time of trouble is near, and not allow Satan to have power over them to cause them to sleep on. A message given by God's appointment will swell into a loud cry to meet that power. Satan boasts that he will get the whole world under his banner in worship, leaving only a little handful who believe the Sabbath, so that none can resist the whole world. He and his angels are constantly preparing it, and affliction and sorrow and distress will be brought all at once upon God's people and spring upon them unawares. Therefore believers must do the very best they can to enlighten the world while it can still be done, and must not remain easy and satisfied but take hold to be laborers together with God.