To have an ear is for every person to listen, take to heart, and act upon the warning given in this chapter about events that will surely come to pass. The beast it warns of is the papacy, a church united with the state that inherited the power, seat, and authority of pagan Rome and the traits of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and that tramples God's law and persecutes His people. Its forty-two months are 1,260 years of oppression from A.D. 538 to 1798, when the pope was taken captive and the power received its deadly wound, fulfilling that he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity and he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. What must be heard is the call to choose between worshiping the Creator by keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, the memorial of creation, and submitting to the beast's counterfeit sabbath on the day of the sun, with allegiance shown by the seal of God in the forehead or the mark of the beast in forehead or hand. That choice reaches its crisis in the last days under the third angel's warning of Revelation 14:9-11 against worshiping the beast and his image, when apostate Protestantism joins civil power to enforce Sunday by decree with death and persecution, and Satan himself appears as an angel of light claiming to have changed the Sabbath to the first day as the test of loyalty.
The Beast and Its Time
The beast described in Revelation 13:1-10 is the papacy, a persecuting power existing through the ages in different forms and, under its dominant head in the period described, uniting church and state. It inherited the power and seat and authority of pagan Rome, and it combines the characteristics of the four beasts of Daniel 7 — Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome — showing that it is the inheritor of the power held by those empires successively. It is an earthly government especially engaged in trampling upon God's law and in persecuting His people. The sea from which this beast rises means peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues, showing that the papacy was upheld by many nations.
Its forty-two months are the same prophetic period as Daniel's three and a half times, or 1,260 days: 1,260 years of papal oppression running from A.D. 538 to 1798. In 1798 the pope was taken captive and the papal power was abolished, receiving its deadly wound. This fulfilled the certain judgment that he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity and he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword, through which the patience and the faith of the saints endure. The verse stands amid this account of blasphemy against God and heaven, war to overcome the saints, worldwide worship by all not written in the Lamb's book, and that oppression and wound.
That war against God's people is carried forward to the close of time, when God's people, symbolized by a holy woman and her children, are greatly in the minority and in the last days only a remnant exists who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The sequence containing the verse continues through Revelation 14:5 to the complete redemption of the 144,000, victorious over the beast and his image with the Lamb on Mount Zion. It stands within Revelation 12 to 18, which are being fulfilled and lead to the final call to the churches in chapter 18 now to be given. Then comes the time pictured in chapter 19 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 on this earth.
The Warning and Its Choice
If any have an ear, all are to hear, heed, read and take the warning of this chapter seriously, for it concerns every person great and small, every son and daughter of Adam. It is the last message of warning for all to hear, concerning events that will surely take place in which all the world will act a part, and it is repeated over and over again. The prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 are being fulfilled, and Revelation 18 records the final call to the churches which is now to be given.
What is to be heard is the definite explanation of the apostate power set against God's law, its blasphemy against God and heaven, its war to overcome the saints, its worldwide worship by all not written in the Lamb's book, and its oppression and wound with the certain judgment that he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity and he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword, through which the patience and faith of the saints endure. Christ gave these visions to John as matters of highest importance, and their message from Christ is to reach God's people plainly in almost entirely Bible words, without human wisdom or tradition mixed in. It belongs to the communications given for all who live in these last days, to be read carefully and prayerfully down to the closing scenes, for to war against this preaching is to war against the Word of God. Its call to hear leads on to the very last call in chapter 18 and then to the time pictured in chapter 19 when the beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire, the dragon who instigated rebellion is bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, followed by the resurrection of the wicked, the final destruction of Satan and all the wicked, and the final triumph and reign of Christ on this earth.
The chapter lays out in clear lines the position of God's people for this time in regard to Sunday laws. Each person must choose between worshiping the true God by keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, the memorial of creation, and submitting to the beast's false, counterfeit Sabbath on the day of the sun and its compelled worship. That choice will bring persecution, including imprisonment and death, for those who remain loyal to God.
Worshipers of the beast receive his mark in forehead or in hand, the forehead meaning intellect or mind and the hand meaning power. God seals His servants only in their foreheads because compulsory worship is not acceptable to Him, while forced worship is acceptable to wicked powers and has always been craved by the Romish hierarchy. The seal of God is His Sabbath, placed in the forehead because it is known in the mind, in direct opposition to the mark as a counterfeit Sabbath on the day of the sun, and the fourth commandment alone distinguishes the Creator from false gods.
The first beast's mark concerns allegiance expressed by obedience to human religious laws in place of God's law, contrasted with keeping God's commandments and the faith of Jesus. The image is apostate Protestantism joining civil power to enforce religious teachings, formed when churches and the world unite to trample God's commandments. The beast and his image enforce worship by decree and threaten with death, imprisonment, and persecution all who obey God, especially for keeping the Sabbath, while those who enforce the mark will face God's wrath and then realize the Sabbath as the seal of the living God. All classes except the little flock will unite to exalt Sunday and enforce it upon all by stringent laws.
The prophecy finds its final fulfillment in the last days when Satan appears as an angel of light with great power and heavenly glory, claims to be Lord of the whole earth, declares the Sabbath changed from the seventh to the first day, and as lord of the first day presents this spurious sabbath as a test of loyalty. It is to be studied with the whole of Revelation 14, where verses 9-11 give the third angel's loud special warning against worshiping the beast and his image and receiving his mark, to be given by those described in verse 12 as keeping God's commandments. That message combines the first and second messages and binds them with the third in the great and last warfare between those who keep God's commandments and those who make void His law.
The chapter is God's warning to His people of the perils before them in the last days, showing people working counter to God, working against Him through church and state, and being deceived. At the center of the worldwide conflict in which all the world will act a part is the Sabbath question.
To have an ear is for every person to listen, take to heart, and act upon the warning given in this chapter about events that will surely come to pass. The beast it warns of is the papacy, a church united with the state that inherited the power, seat, and authority of pagan Rome and the traits of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and that tramples God's law and persecutes His people. Its forty-two months are 1,260 years of oppression from A.D. 538 to 1798, when the pope was taken captive and the power received its deadly wound, fulfilling that he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity and he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. What must be heard is the call to choose between worshiping the Creator by keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, the memorial of creation, and submitting to the beast's counterfeit sabbath on the day of the sun, with allegiance shown by the seal of God in the forehead or the mark of the beast in forehead or hand. That choice reaches its crisis in the last days under the third angel's warning of Revelation 14:9-11 against worshiping the beast and his image, when apostate Protestantism joins civil power to enforce Sunday by decree with death and persecution, and Satan himself appears as an angel of light claiming to have changed the Sabbath to the first day as the test of loyalty.
The Beast and Its Time
The beast described in Revelation 13:1-10 is the papacy, a persecuting power existing through the ages in different forms and, under its dominant head in the period described, uniting church and state. It inherited the power and seat and authority of pagan Rome, and it combines the characteristics of the four beasts of Daniel 7 — Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome — showing that it is the inheritor of the power held by those empires successively. It is an earthly government especially engaged in trampling upon God's law and in persecuting His people. The sea from which this beast rises means peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues, showing that the papacy was upheld by many nations.
Its forty-two months are the same prophetic period as Daniel's three and a half times, or 1,260 days: 1,260 years of papal oppression running from A.D. 538 to 1798. In 1798 the pope was taken captive and the papal power was abolished, receiving its deadly wound. This fulfilled the certain judgment that he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity and he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword, through which the patience and the faith of the saints endure. The verse stands amid this account of blasphemy against God and heaven, war to overcome the saints, worldwide worship by all not written in the Lamb's book, and that oppression and wound.
That war against God's people is carried forward to the close of time, when God's people, symbolized by a holy woman and her children, are greatly in the minority and in the last days only a remnant exists who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The sequence containing the verse continues through Revelation 14:5 to the complete redemption of the 144,000, victorious over the beast and his image with the Lamb on Mount Zion. It stands within Revelation 12 to 18, which are being fulfilled and lead to the final call to the churches in chapter 18 now to be given. Then comes the time pictured in chapter 19 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 on this earth.
The Warning and Its Choice
If any have an ear, all are to hear, heed, read and take the warning of this chapter seriously, for it concerns every person great and small, every son and daughter of Adam. It is the last message of warning for all to hear, concerning events that will surely take place in which all the world will act a part, and it is repeated over and over again. The prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 are being fulfilled, and Revelation 18 records the final call to the churches which is now to be given.
What is to be heard is the definite explanation of the apostate power set against God's law, its blasphemy against God and heaven, its war to overcome the saints, its worldwide worship by all not written in the Lamb's book, and its oppression and wound with the certain judgment that he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity and he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword, through which the patience and faith of the saints endure. Christ gave these visions to John as matters of highest importance, and their message from Christ is to reach God's people plainly in almost entirely Bible words, without human wisdom or tradition mixed in. It belongs to the communications given for all who live in these last days, to be read carefully and prayerfully down to the closing scenes, for to war against this preaching is to war against the Word of God. Its call to hear leads on to the very last call in chapter 18 and then to the time pictured in chapter 19 when the beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire, the dragon who instigated rebellion is bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, followed by the resurrection of the wicked, the final destruction of Satan and all the wicked, and the final triumph and reign of Christ on this earth.
The chapter lays out in clear lines the position of God's people for this time in regard to Sunday laws. Each person must choose between worshiping the true God by keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, the memorial of creation, and submitting to the beast's false, counterfeit Sabbath on the day of the sun and its compelled worship. That choice will bring persecution, including imprisonment and death, for those who remain loyal to God.
Worshipers of the beast receive his mark in forehead or in hand, the forehead meaning intellect or mind and the hand meaning power. God seals His servants only in their foreheads because compulsory worship is not acceptable to Him, while forced worship is acceptable to wicked powers and has always been craved by the Romish hierarchy. The seal of God is His Sabbath, placed in the forehead because it is known in the mind, in direct opposition to the mark as a counterfeit Sabbath on the day of the sun, and the fourth commandment alone distinguishes the Creator from false gods.
The first beast's mark concerns allegiance expressed by obedience to human religious laws in place of God's law, contrasted with keeping God's commandments and the faith of Jesus. The image is apostate Protestantism joining civil power to enforce religious teachings, formed when churches and the world unite to trample God's commandments. The beast and his image enforce worship by decree and threaten with death, imprisonment, and persecution all who obey God, especially for keeping the Sabbath, while those who enforce the mark will face God's wrath and then realize the Sabbath as the seal of the living God. All classes except the little flock will unite to exalt Sunday and enforce it upon all by stringent laws.
The prophecy finds its final fulfillment in the last days when Satan appears as an angel of light with great power and heavenly glory, claims to be Lord of the whole earth, declares the Sabbath changed from the seventh to the first day, and as lord of the first day presents this spurious sabbath as a test of loyalty. It is to be studied with the whole of Revelation 14, where verses 9-11 give the third angel's loud special warning against worshiping the beast and his image and receiving his mark, to be given by those described in verse 12 as keeping God's commandments. That message combines the first and second messages and binds them with the third in the great and last warfare between those who keep God's commandments and those who make void His law.
The chapter is God's warning to His people of the perils before them in the last days, showing people working counter to God, working against Him through church and state, and being deceived. At the center of the worldwide conflict in which all the world will act a part is the Sabbath question.