Bible Readings for the Home Circle Part 72

"The beasts of Daniel and John are empires. The ten-horned beast is the Roman power.... The head is the governing power of the body. The heads of this beast represent successive governments."-_"__Romanism and the Reformation,__"__ by H. Grattan Guinness, pages 144, 145._

2. How is this beast further described?

"And the beast which I saw was _like unto a leopard_, and his feet were as _the feet of a bear_, and his mouth as _the mouth of a lion_." Verse 2, first part.

NOTES.-These are the characteristics of the first three symbols of Daniel 7,-the _lion_, _bear_, and _leopard_ there representing the kingdoms of _Babylon_, _Medo-Persia_, and _Grecia_,-and suggest this beast as representing or belonging to the kingdom symbolized by the _fourth beast_ of Daniel 7, or _Rome_. Both have ten horns.

Like the dragon of Revelation 12, it also has seven heads; but as the dragon symbolized Rome in its entirety, particularly in its pagan phase, this, like the "little horn" coming up among the ten horns of the fourth beast of Daniel 7, represents Rome in its later or papal form. Both it and the little horn have "a mouth"

speaking great things; both make war upon the saints; both continue for the same length of time.

Allowing a very broad meaning to the symbol, the Douay or Catholic Bible, in a note on Rev. 13:1, explains the seven heads of this beast as follows: "The seven heads are seven kings, that is, seven princ.i.p.al kingdoms or empires, which have exercised, or shall exercise, tyrannical power over the people of G.o.d: of these, five were then fallen, viz., the Egyptian, a.s.syrian, Chaldean, Persian, and Grecian monarchies; one was present, viz., the empire of Rome; and the seventh and chiefest was to come, viz., the great Antichrist and his empire." That the seventh head represents Antichrist there can be little doubt. See page 265.

3. What did the dragon give this beast?

"And the dragon gave him his _power_, and his _seat_, and _great authority_." Verse 2, latter part.

NOTE.-It is an undisputed fact of history that under the later Roman emperors, beginning with Constantine, the religion of the Roman government was changed from pagan to papal; that when Constantine removed the seat of his empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330 A.D., the city of Rome was given up to the bishop of Rome, who, from Constantine and succeeding emperors, received rich gifts and great authority; that after the fall of Rome, in 476 A.D., the bishop of Rome became the ruling power in Western Rome, and by decree of Justinian, March 15, 533, was declared "head of all the holy churches," and in a letter of the same year he was designated as "corrector of heretics." See note on page 223. Thus Rome pagan became Rome papal; the seat of pagan Rome became the seat of papal Rome; church and state were united; and the persecuting power of the dragon was conferred upon the professed head of the church of Christ, or papal Rome. As Dr. H.

Grattan Guinness, in his "Romanism and the Reformation," page 152, says, "The power of the Caesars lived again in the universal dominion of the popes."

4. How are the character, work, period of supremacy, and great power of the beast described?

"And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against G.o.d, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." Verses 5-7.

NOTE.-All these specifications have been fully and accurately met in the Papacy, and identify this beast as representing the same power as that represented by the little horn phase of the fourth beast of Daniel 7, and the little horn of Daniel 8, in its chief and essential features and work. See Dan. 7:25; 8:11, 12, 24, 25, and readings on pages 218, 224. For an explanation of the time period mentioned, see pages 223, 229.

5. What was to be inflicted upon one of the heads of this beast?

"And I saw _one of his heads as it were wounded to death_; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast." Verse 3.

NOTE.-This wound was inflicted upon the papal head of this beast when the French, in 1798, entered Rome, and took the Pope prisoner, and for a time, it seemed, abolished the Papacy. But in 1800 another Pope was placed upon the papal throne, and the deadly wound began to be healed. Temporal dominion was taken away from the Papacy in 1870, but nevertheless its power and influence among the nations have been increasing since then. "In that year," says Mr. Guinness in his work "Romanism and the Reformation," page 156, "the Papacy a.s.sumed the highest exaltation to which it could aspire, that of infallibility." To such a position of influence over the nations is the Papacy finally to attain that just before her complete overthrow and destruction she will say, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." Rev. 18:7. See Isa. 47:7-15; Rev. 17:18.

6. What is said concerning the captivity and downfall of the Papacy?

"He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword." Verse 10. See Ps. 18:25, 26; 109:17; Jer. 50:29; Rev. 16:4-6.

7. What questions asked by its wors.h.i.+pers indicate the great station to which this beast-power was to attain?

"And they wors.h.i.+ped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they wors.h.i.+ped the beast, saying, _Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?_" Rev. 13:4.

8. How universal is the wors.h.i.+p of this power to become?

"And all that dwell upon the earth shall wors.h.i.+p him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Verse 8.

9. What did John say was to be the end of this beast?

"And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him.... _These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone._" Rev. 19:20. See Isa. 47:7-15; 2 Thess. 2:3-8; Rev. 17:16, 17; 18:4-8.

10. In what similar language is the fate of the fourth beast of Daniel 7 described?

"I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was _slain_, and his body _destroyed_, and _given to the burning flame_." Dan. 7:11.

Making An Image To The Beast. The Prophecy Of Revelation 13

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Landing Of The Pilgrim Fathers. The vanguard of Protestantism, who established "a Church without a pope, and a State without a king."

1. When was the papal head of the first beast of Revelation 13 wounded?

In 1793-98, by the French Revolution, and the temporary overthrow of the Papacy in the latter year.

2. What did the prophet see coming up at this time?

"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." Rev. 13:11.

NOTES.-Mr. Wesley, in his notes on Revelation 13, written in 1754, says of the two-horned beast: "He is not yet come, though he cannot be far off; for he is to appear at the end of the forty-two months of the first beast."

The previous beast came up out of the "sea," which indicates its rise among the peoples and nations of the world then in existence (Rev 17: 15); while this one comes up out of the "earth." This would indicate that the latter beast would arise where there had not before been "peoples, and mult.i.tudes, and nations, and tongues." In 1798, when the papal power received its deadly wound, the government of the United States, located in the western continent, was the only great and independent nation then coming into prominence in territory not previously occupied by peoples, mult.i.tudes, and nations. Only nine years preceding this (1789), the United States adopted its national Const.i.tution.

It is within the territory of the United States, therefore, that we may look, according to the prophecy, for an ecclesiastical movement to arise, and exercise a dominating control, not only in the civil government of this country, but also in the other nations of the whole world as well.

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

Signing The Declaration Of Independence. "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." Lev. 25:10.

3. What is the character of this new power?

"He had _two horns like a lamb_." Rev. 13:11.

NOTE.-The Pilgrim Fathers were the vanguard of a great mult.i.tude of Protestants, who, when persecuted and outlawed in the lands of their birth, sought refuge in the New World, where they developed rapidly under the protection of a government founded on the great Christian principles of civil and religious freedom. The two horns may well symbolize these two fundamental principles.