| Note 8. page 396. – These words are based upon the PROPHECY of REVELATION 13 and 14. The people with whom the author stands connected have taught for years [since c.1850] that all classes except “THE LITTLE FLOCK” will unite to exalt the Sunday and enforce it upon all by stringent laws. It may assist the reader in understanding the points in the latter part of Chapter 30. To notice the facts of the PROPHECY on which this idea is based. {1884 4SP 501.3} |
| 1. The BEAST of REVELATION 13:1-10 is understood to refer to the PAPAL POWER. This has been the general opinion of Protestants. {1884 4SP 502.1} |
| 2. “THE SEA” out of which this BEAST arose is the same as “THE WATERS” of REVELATION 17:15, explained to be “PEOPLES, and MULTITUDES, and NATIONS, and TONGUES.” The papacy was upheld by many nations. {1884 4SP 502.2} |
| 3. This BEAST has the characteristics of the FOUR BEASTS of DANIEL 7, which represent the FOUR EMPIRES of BABYLON, PERSIA, GREECE, and ROME. It is the INHERITOR of the POWER held by these FOUR EMPIRES successively. {1884 4SP 502.3} |
| 4. The BEAST with TWO HORNS, REVELATION 13:11-17, is in a DIFFERENT LOCALITY, “COMING UP OUT OF THE EARTH;” not by the conquest of nations and peoples, but GROWING as a plant, OUT OF THE EARTH. This represents the UNITED STATES, a locality OUTSIDE of the DOMINION of “ALL THE WORLD,” as known to THE ANCIENTS. {1884 4SP 502.4} |
| 5. This BEAST has TWO HORNS, the CIVIL and the ECCLESIASTICAL. That a CHURCH is REPRESENTED by a HORN is proved in DANIEL 7, the “LITTLE HORN” representing the ROMAN CHURCH, even before it was POSSESSED of CIVIL POWER. So also in REVELATION 13. The DRAGON (pagan Rome) gave the BEAST (the church) his POWER (civil power), and SEAT (city of Rome), and GREAT AUTHORITY. {1884 4SP 502.5} |
| 6. The TWO-HORNED BEAST appears in TWO PHASES, – with the GENTLENESS of a LAMB and the FIERCENESS of the DRAGON. This has, to some extent, already been shown, in the inconsistency of sending forth to the world the doctrine of the equality of all men in respect to natural rights, – the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, – and upholding by law all the EVILS of AMERICAN SLAVERY. Also, by professing to grant the privilege to all to WORSHIP GOD according to the dictates of their OWN CONSCIENCES, and then PERSECUTING the BAPTISTS and QUAKERS for following their CONSCIENTIOUS CONVICTIONS. But this will be shown more fully in the FUTURE, when CONGRESS shall be called upon to MAKE LAWS CONCERNING RELIGION. {1884 4SP 502.6} |
| 7. The IDENTITY of the “TWO-HORNED BEAST” is further shown by its WONDER WORKING; by its DECEIVING “them that dwell on the earth by those MIRACLES which he had POWER to do in the sight of the BEAST.” REVELATION 13:14. SPIRITUALISM arose in the UNITED STATES, and has gone to ALL THE WORLD by means of American mediums. {1884 4SP 502.7} |
| 8. This BEAST causes both “the earth and them which dwell therein to WORSHIP the FIRST BEAST.” This can be easily referred to LAWS COMPELLING THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SUNDAY instead of the SABBATH of the LORD, – the SEVENTH DAY. The Sunday-Sabbath institution is traced directly to the ROMISH CHURCH, which, indeed, claims the honour of ORIGINATING it; and no one has been able to dispute this claim. The SABBATH of JEHOVAH commemorates the CREATION of the HEAVENS and the EARTH, and the COMMANDMENT for its observance was given that the earth and its inhabitants might GLORIFY the CREATOR. The LAW which compels the observance of the Sunday-Sabbath annuls the COMMANDMENT of GOD, and the earth and them that dwell therein are caused to do homage to the power which originated it, by resting thereon. Protestants have ascribed various institutions to the papacy, and applied this PROPHECY to them; but in none is the earth, in distinction from those who dwell upon the earth, caused to WORSHIP that POWER, except in the SUNDAY REST ENFORCED upon all the land. {1884 4SP 503.1} |
| 9. And this sufficiently shows that it is no mere assumption to say that CATHOLICS and PROTESTANTS WILL UNITE in ENFORCING the SUNDAY. Catholics honour it as the evidence of their authority to “institute festivals of precept, and to command them under sin,” and Protestants are making most strenuous efforts for its universal enforcement. It is a well-known fact that most of the Protestant denominations are greatly modifying their opposition to the Catholic church, and united action of the two bodies in favour of the Sunday is by no means improbable. But a few years ago this view was taught on the STRENGTH of the PROPHECY alone. Now we see in passing events strong indications of its fulfilment. The special object of the “national reform association’ is to procure a RELIGIOUS AMENDMENT to the NATIONAL CONSTITUTION that the Sunday may be rescued from desecration and universally enforced. {1884 4SP 503.2} |
| 10. This BEAST not only compels the earth and its inhabitants to WORSHIP the FIRST BEAST, as above noticed, but it causes them that dwell upon the earth to MAKE AN IMAGE to the FIRST BEAST. This can be done ONLY by a UNION of CHURCH and STATE, or by so SUBORDINATING the CIVIL to the ECCLESIASTICAL POWER that the state will be compelled to enforce the tenets and requirements of the church. A RELIGIOUS AMENDMENT to the CONSTITUTION of the UNITED STATES would speedily insure this result. {1884 4SP 503.3} |
| 11. This EXPOSITION of the PROPHECY is CONFIRMED by the MESSAGE from the Lord found in REVELATION 14:9-12, which is based altogether on the FACTS of REVELATION 13:11-17, and which condemns in the very strongest terms the action of this BEAST and the worship which it enforces; it also calls to KEEPING the COMMANDMENTS of GOD and the FAITH of JESUS, and ONE of these COMMANDMENTS ENFORCES the SABBATH of the LORD, – the SEVENTH DAY. Therefore the contrast in the facts and in the MESSAGE which refers to the facts, is between the SABBATH of the LORD and an opposing Sabbath, namely, the Sunday. {1884 4SP 504.1} |
| This is a very brief statement of the facts which JUSTIFY the expressions of the author on pages 396,397. {1884 4SP 504.2} |
