names were in the book of life. Thank God that even during the dark age
of Romanism a people existed who were owned by the Lord and who refused
to render idolatrous worship to this tyrannical beast. For further
information regarding these medieval Christians, see remarks on chapter
11:3. But these saints who opposed the Papal assumptions were made the
object of fearful persecutions, until Rome glutted herself upon the
blood of millions of God's holy saints. This will be more fully
described in chapter 17, where this apostate church appears under
another symbol, "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the
blood of the martyrs of Jesus." In all their severe trials, however,
they were comforted with the knowledge that Justice would not always
sleep, but that a time would come when her retributive hand would be
stretched forth to lead into captivity their persecuting enemies and
break their world-wide reign of tyranny and usurpation. "Here is the
patience and the faith of the saints." To a number of people God gave
special foresight of the coming reformation of the sixteenth century, in
which the universal spiritual supremacy of the Papacy ended. A few of
the many examples will be profitable.
Says D'Aubigne: "John Huss preached in Bohemia a century before Luther
preached in Saxony. He seems to have penetrated deeper than his
predecessors into the essence of Christian truth. He prayed to Christ
for grace to glory only in his cross, and in the inestimable humiliation
of his sufferings.... He was, if we may be allowed the expression, the
John Baptist of the reformation. The flames of his pile kindled a fire
in the church that cast a brilliant light into the surrounding darkness,
and whose glimmerings were not to be so readily extinguished. John Huss
did more: prophetic words issued from the depths of his dungeon. He
foresaw that a real reformation of the church was at hand. When driven
out of Prague and compelled to wander through the fields of Bohemia,
where an immense crowd followed his steps and hung upon his words, he
had cried out: 'The wicked have begun by preparing a treacherous snare
for a goose. But if even the goose, which is only a domestic bird, a
peaceful animal, and whose flight is not very far in the air, has
nevertheless broken through their toils, other birds, soaring more
boldly towards the sky, will break through them with still greater
force. Instead of a feeble goose, the truth will send forth eagles and
keen-eyed vultures.' This prediction was fulfilled by the reformers.
"When the venerable priest had been summoned by Sigismund's order before
the Council of Constance, and had been thrown into prison, the chapel of
Bethlehem, in which he had proclaimed the gospel and the future triumphs
of Christ, occupied his mind much more than his own defence. One night
the holy martyr saw in imagination, from the depths of his dungeon, the
pictures of Christ which he had painted on the walls of his oratory,
effaced by the Pope and his bishops. This vision distressed him; but on
the next day he saw many painters occupied in restoring these figures in
greater number and in brighter colors. As soon as the task was ended,
the painters, who were surrounded by an immense crowd, exclaimed, 'Now
let the popes and bishops come! they shall never efface them more!' And
many people rejoiced in Bethlehem, and I with them, adds John Huss.
'Busy yourself with your defence rather than with your dreams,' said his
faithful friend, the Knight of Chlum, to whom he had communicated this
vision. 'I am no dreamer,' replied Huss, 'but I maintain this for
certain, that the image of Christ will never be effaced. They have
wished to destroy it, but it shall be painted afresh in all hearts by
much better preachers than myself. The nation that loves Christ will
rejoice at this. And I, awaking from the dead, and rising so to speak,
from my grave, shall leap with great joy.'" History of the Reformation,
Book I, Chap. 6.
This bold witness for Christ was burned at the stake July 6, 1415, by
order of the General Council of Constance. When the fagots were piled up
around him ready for the torch, he said to the executioner, "You are now
going to burn a goose [Huss signifying goose in the Bohemian language];
but in a century you will have a swan whom you can neither roast nor
boil." Fox's Book of Martyrs. This was fulfilled in Martin Luther.
Henry Institorus, an inquisitor, uttered these remarkable words: "'All
the world cries out and demands a council, but there is no human power
that can reform the church by a council. The Most High will find other
means, which are at present unknown to us, although they may be at our
very doors, to bring back the church to its pristine condition.' This
remarkable prophecy, delivered by an inquisitor at the very period of
Luther's birth, is the best apology for the reformation."
Andrew Proles, provincial of the Augustines, used often to say: "Whence,
then, proceeds so much darkness and such horrible superstitions? O my
brethren! Christianity needs a bold and a great reform, and methinks I
see it already approaching.... I am bent with the weight of years, and
weak in body, and I have not the learning, the ability, and eloquence,
that so great an undertaking requires. But God will raise up a hero, who
by his age, strength, talents, learning, genius and eloquence, shall
hold the foremost place. He will begin the reformation; he will oppose
error, and God will give him boldness to resist the mighty ones of the
earth."
John Hilten censured the most flagrant abuses of the monastic life, and
the exasperated monks threw him into prison and treated him shamefully.
"The Franciscan, forgetting his malady and groaning heavily, replied: 'I
bear your insults calmly for the love of Christ; for I have said nothing
that can injure the monastic state: I have only censured its most crying
abuses.' 'But,' continued he (according to what Melancthon records in
his Apology for the Augsburg Confession of Faith), 'another man will
rise in the year of our Lord 1516: he will destroy you, and you shall
not be able to resist him.'"
In 1516 Luther held a public discussion with Feld-kirchen, in which he
upheld certain doctrines of truth that made a great stir among the
Romanists. Says D'Aubigne: "The disputation took place in 1516. This was
Luther's first attack upon the dominion of the sophists and upon the
Papacy, as he himself characterizes it." And again, "This disputation
made a great noise, and it has been considered as the beginning of the
reformation." Book I, Chap. 9. The next year, however, he entered
publicly upon the actual work of reformation.
Frederick of Saxony, surnamed the Wise, was the most powerful elector of
the German empire at the period of the reformation. A dream he had and
related just before the world was startled by the first great act of
reformation is so striking that I feel justified in repeating it in this
connection. It was as follows:
"Having gone to bed last night, tired and dispirited, I soon fell asleep
after saying my prayers, and slept calmly for about two hours and a
half. I then awoke, and all kinds of thoughts occupied me until
midnight.... I then fell asleep again, and dreamed the Almighty sent me
a monk, who was a true son of Paul the apostle. He was accompanied by
all the saints, in obedience to God's command, to bear him testimony,
and to assure me that he did not come with any fraudulent design, but
that all he should do was conformable to the will of God. They asked my
gracious permission to let him write something on the doors of the
palace-chapel at Wittemberg, which I conceded through my chancellor.
Upon this, the monk retired thither and began to write; so large were
the characters that I could read from Schweinitz what he was writing
[about 18 miles]. The pen he used was so long that its extremity reached
as far as Rome, where it pierced the ears of a lion which lay there, and
shook the triple crown on the Pope's head. All the cardinals and princes
ran up hastily and endeavored to support it.... I stretched out my arm:
that moment I awoke with my arm extended, in great alarm and very angry
with this monk, who could not guide his pen better. I recovered myself a
little.... It was only a dream. I was still half asleep, and once more
closed my eyes. The dream came again. The lion, still disturbed by the
pen, began to roar with all his might, until the whole city of Rome, and
all the States of the holy empire, ran up to know what was the matter.
The Pope called upon us to oppose this monk, and addressed himself
particularly to me, because the friar was living in my dominions. I
again awoke, repeated the Lord's prayer, entreated God to preserve his
Holiness, and fell asleep.... I then dreamt that all the princes of the
empire, and we along with them, hastened to Rome, and endeavored one
after another to break this pen; but the greater our exertions the
stronger it became: it crackled as if it had been made of iron: we gave
it up as hopeless. I then asked the monk (for I was now at Rome, now at
Wittemberg) where he had got that pen, and how it came to be so strong.
[In those days they used goosequills for pens.] 'This pen,' replied he,
'belonged to a Bohemian goose [Huss] a hundred years old. I had it from
one of my old schoolmasters. It is so strong because no one can take the
pith out of it, and I am myself quite astonished at it.' On a sudden I
heard a loud cry; from the monk's long pen had issued a host of other
pens. I awoke a third time; it was day light." History of the
Reformation, Book III, Chap. 4.
Frederick related the foregoing to his brother John, the Duke of York,
on the morning of Oct. 31, 1517, stating that he had dreamed it during
the previous night. The same day at noon Martin Luther advanced boldly
to the chapel at Wittemberg and posted upon the door ninety-five theses,
or propositions, against the Papal doctrine of indulgences. This was his
public entrance upon the great work of reformation. The importance of
the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century is incalculable. It gave the
deathblow to the universal spiritual supremacy of Rome. As we have
already seen, the Papacy had for centuries held despotic sway over the
minds and the consciences of men. One potent cause of the Reformation
was the great Revival of Learning that marked the close of the medieval
and the beginning of the modern period of history. This great mental
awakening contrasted sharply with the blind ignorance and superstition
of the Middle Ages, and caused many men to doubt the Scriptural
authority of many of the doctrines and ceremonies of the Church of Rome;
such as invocation of saints, auricular confession, use of images,
worship of the Virgin Mary, etc.
Scandals and abuses in the Church of Rome also hastened the Reformation.
During the fifteenth century the morals of that church had sunk to the
greatest depths of iniquity. The Popes themselves were, in some cases,
monsters of impurity and iniquity, insomuch that historians are obliged
to draw the vail over many of their dark deeds.
But the real occasion of the revolt of the northern nations of Europe
against the jurisdiction of Rome was the controversy regarding
indulgences. "These in the Catholic church, are remissions, to penitents
of punishment due for sin, upon the performances of some work of mercy
or piety, or the payment of a sum of money." When Leo X. was elected to
the Papal dignity (1513), he found the church in great need of money for
the building of Saint Peter's and other undertakings, and he had
recourse to a grant of indulgences to fill the coffers of the church.
The power of dispensing these indulgences in Saxony in Germany was given
to a Dominican friar named Tetzel. This fanatic enthusiast entertained
the most exaggerated opinion of the efficacy of indulgences. In his
harrangues he uttered such expressions as the following:
"Indulgences are the most precious and the most noble of God's gifts."
"There is no sin so great that an indulgence can not remit; ... only let
him pay well, and all will be forgiven him." "Come, and I will give you
letters, all properly sealed, by which even the sins that you intend to
commit may be pardoned." "I would not change my privileges for those of
St. Peter in heaven; for I have saved more souls by my indulgences than
the apostle by his sermons." "The Lord Omnipotent hath ceased to reign;
he has resigned all power to the Pope." See D'Aubigne's History of the
Reformation, Book III, Chap. 1.
Martin Luther was an Augustine monk and a teacher of theology in the
University of Wittemberg. Before Tetzel appeared in Germany, Luther
possessed a wide reputation for learning and piety, and he had also
entertained doubts respecting many of the doctrines of the church.
During an official visit to Rome in 1510 he was almost overwhelmed with
sorrow because of the moral corruption there; but while penitentially
ascending on his knees the sacred stairs of the Lateran, he seemed to
hear a voice thundering in his soul, "The just shall live by faith!"
This marked an important epoch in his career.
When Tetzel appeared in Saxony with his indulgences, Luther fearlessly
opposed him. He drew up ninety-five theses against the infamous traffic
and nailed them to the door of the church at Wittemberg, and invited all
scholars to criticise them and point out if they were opposed to the
doctrine of the Word of God or of the early church Fathers. Here the
invention of printing proved to be a powerful agency in advancing the
cause of reformation by scattering copies of these theses everywhere;
and soon the continent of Europe was in a perfect turmoil of
controversy. The Pope excommunicated Luther as a heretic. In reply
Luther burned the Papal bull publicly at Wittemberg. Shortly afterward
Luther produced his celebrated translation of the Bible in the German
language. Even a brief history of the entire Reformation would be too
large for the limits of the present volume, therefore with a few words
respecting the nature of the work of the Reformation we will pass on to
another prophetic vision.
The great secret of the early success of the reformers was their appeal
from the decisions of councils and regulations of men to the Word of
God. So long as the Word and Spirit of God were allowed their proper
place as the Governors of God's people, the work was a spiritual
blessing. But this happy state of affairs did not long continue. Within
a few years the followers of the reformers were divided into hostile
sects and began to oppose and persecute each other. Luther denounced
Zwingle as a heretic, and "the Calvinists would have no dealings with
the Lutherans." The first Protestant creed was the Augsburg Confession
(1530). This date marks an important epoch. From this time the people
began to lose sight of the Word and Spirit of God as their Governors and
to turn to the disciplines of their sects, which they upheld by every
means possible. Thus we find Calvin at Geneva consenting to the burning
of Servetus, because of a difference of religious views; and in England
the Anglican Protestants waged the most bitter, cruel, and relentless
war not only against Catholics, but against all Protestants who refused
to conform to the Established Church. The Protestants placed armies in
the field and fought for their creeds, as during the Thirty Years' War
in Germany and the long period of the Hugenot wars in France. The real
work of the Reformation, the promulgation of so much of the truth of the
Bible, was an inestimable blessing to the world; but the rise of
Protestantism (organized sectism) in 1530 introduced another period of
apostasy as distinct in many of its features as was that of Romanism
before it. The historian D'Aubigne recognizes an important change at
this period. He says:
"The first two books of this volume contain the most important epochs of
the Reformation--the Protest of Spires, and the Confession of
Augsburg.... I determined on bringing the reformation of Germany and
German Switzerland to the _decisive epochs of_ 1530 and 1531. The
history of the Reformation, properly so-called, is then in my opinion
almost complete in those countries. The work of faith has there attained
its apogee: that of conferences, of interims, of diplomacy begins....
The movement of the Sixteenth Century has there made its effort. I said
from the very first, It is the history of the Reformation and not of
Protestantism that I am relating." Preface to Vol. V.
11. 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.
12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before
him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to
worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down
from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of
those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the
beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should
make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and
did live.
15. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast,
that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as
many as would not worship the image of the beast should be
killed.
16. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor,
free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in
their foreheads:
17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the
mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the
number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his
number is Six hundred threescore and six.
The symbolic description of this beast directs us also to a political
and a religious system rising at the expiration of the twelve hundred
and sixty years' reign of the first beast, but that he was no such
terrible beast politically as the one before him is proved by the fact
that he had but two horns and they _like a lamb_. This beast rose "out
of the earth"--the Apocalyptic earth, or the territory of the Roman
empire. The first beast rose out of the sea, which, as before shown,
signifies the heart of the empire in an agitated state; for the ten
horns came up through the greatest political convulsions that the page
of history records. When John beheld the second beast "coming up,"
however, the empire was in a state of comparative quiet, although fierce
wars followed afterward. He stands as a symbol of _Protestantism_ in
Europe; although his power and influence afterwards extended beyond the
"earth"--the Apocalyptic earth--into "the whole world." Chap. 16:14.
That this beast came up upon the same territory occupied by the Papacy
is proved also by the statement that "he exerciseth all the power of the
first beast before him." It was predicted in a subsequent chapter
(17:16) that the ten horns, or kingdoms of Europe, after supporting the
Papacy during the Dark Ages, would later turn against her. This has met
a remarkable fulfilment under the reign of Protestantism.
The first two nations to turn violently against Popery were England and
Germany. They have ever since been the chief supporters and defenders of
Protestantism, and they are doubtless the two kingdoms symbolized by the
two horns of the beast. While at one time the Pope was a temporal
sovereign and could, by his political and ecclesiastical power, humble
with ease the mightiest nations of Europe before him, his authority has
been wrested from him by degrees, so that to-day not a vestige of his
temporal power remains, and his anathemas fall harmlessly. The nations
have asserted their rights as kings. When King Victor Emmanuel entered
Rome on the twentieth day of September, 1870, the Pope's temporal sun
set forever, and he does not control even the city in which he
lives--Rome. He is often referred to as "the prisoner of the Vatican."
"He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity," said the
prophecy; "he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the
sword." It was by force of arms that the Popes obtained and maintained
their temporal power over the nations, and by the force of arms they
have had their authority torn from them. Religion has been referred to
as "the basis of government"; for the legislators of any country are to
a great degree influenced in their deliberations by religious
sentiments. In all Protestant countries that greatest of Protestant
principles, religious liberty, is as truly recognized by statute as was
that infernal principle of the Papacy, religious intolerance, when
formerly enforced by law. Protestant principles have so far permeated
the nations of Europe formerly controlled by the Papacy that religious
toleration is generally granted. In Italy, the headquarters of Popedom,
where the Catholics are greatly in the majority, religious liberty is
granted by law. And even Spain, denominated by the Encyclopædia
Britannica "the most Catholic country in the world," exhibits "a general
indifferentism to religion," meaning that the fanaticism and intolerance
of former ages that caused thousands, and perhaps millions, to be slain,
is rapidly dying out. In the vision before us, however, the special
actions ascribed to this beast--_speaking_, working miracles, deceiving,
making an image and imparting life to it, etc., which all belong
properly to the department of human life--show conclusively that it is
the character of this beast as an _ecclesiastical power_ that is the
chief point under consideration. He was not to become such a terrible
beast politically (for his horns were only _like a lamb_), but "he
_spake_ as a dragon." As soon as we enter the department to which
_speaking_ by analogy refers us, we find this beast to be a great
religious power; and it is in this character alone that he is dilineated
in the remainder of the chapter. That the description of a religious
system is the main burden of this symbol, is shown also by the fact that
it is in every case referred to in subsequent chapters as the "false
prophet." Chap. 16:13; 19:20; 20:10. Therefore every reference I make to
this second beast hereafter should be understood as signifying the
religious system of Protestantism, unless otherwise stated.
That Protestantism in its many forms can be properly represented by a
single symbol--a beast or false prophet--may seem a little strange at
first; but when we come to consider next the making of an image to the
beast, it will be seen that the Protestant sects, from God's standpoint
of viewing, are all alike in character, as were the multitudinous forms
of heathen worship represented under the single symbol of the dragon.
Hence only one beast, or the making of one image, was necessary to stand
as representative of the entire number. It will be noticed by the reader
that from verse 12 to the close of the chapter the term _beast_
signifies the first beast, or the Papacy, and that the second beast, or
Protestantism, is designated by the pronoun _he_.
_Image_ is defined to be "an imitation, representation, similitude of
any person or thing; a copy, a likeness, an effigy." The second beast,
then, is to manufacture something in _imitation_ of the first beast. If
any doubt exists as to which phase of the first beast, political or
ecclesiastical, is copied, it can be settled by considering what is said
of the image made from the original. "The image of the beast
should--_speak_." This directs us by analogy, as heretofore explained,
to the department of religious affairs; hence the second beast forms an
_ecclesiastical organization_ in imitation of the hierarchy of Rome. At
this juncture the Protestant will doubtless exclaim, "Oh, our churches
are nothing like the church of Rome!" But consider a little in the light
of truth. God's Word teaches that they bear the close relationship of
_mother_ and her _daughters_ (Rev. 17:5), and by the help of the Lord we
shall point out a similarity of character in this and subsequent
chapters. The symbol of the church of Rome in chapter 17 is that of a
corrupt _prostitute_, while the symbol of Protestantism is that of her
_harlot daughters_. The Roman church is a humanly organized institution
governed by a set of fallible men, their claims of infallibility to the
contrary notwithstanding. Protestant sects, likewise, are all human
organizations (even though they may sometimes deny it), and are governed
by a man or a conference of men. The Roman Catholic church makes and
prescribes the theology that her members believe. Protestant churches,
also, make their own disciplines and prescribe rules of faith and
practise. The Word of God, inspired by his Spirit, could not be enforced
in Romanism without destroying it; for its main spirit is Antichrist.
So, too, the whole Word in Protestantism would soon annihilate her
God-dishonoring sects; for they are all contrary to its plain teachings,
which condemn divisions and enjoin perfect unity and oneness upon the
redeemed of the Lord. What is said concerning the image of the beast
applies to sectarianism as a whole and the human organization of all her
so-called churches, regardless of the differences that exist between
them as individual institutions; for they may differ as widely as the
various systems of heathen religions symbolized by the dragon, yet they
can be represented by the single symbol of an image to the first beast,
because they are built upon the same general principles--are but human
organizations, falsely called churches of Christ, and are all contrary
to the Scriptures.
Imparting life to the image of the beast simply signifies the complete
organization of the ecclesiastical institutions so that they are capable
of self-government and their decrees possess authority. Every living
body is animated by a spirit. The sectarian spirit that animates the
Methodist body will lead people into that body, etc.; but the one Spirit
of God will, if permitted, baptize us all into the one body of Christ,
where we can all "drink into one Spirit." 1 Cor. 12:13. "And he spake as
a dragon" signifies the great authority by which his laws are enacted
and enforced upon the people.
"And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from
heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell
on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in
the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that
they should make an image to the beast." Fire from heaven upon Elijah's
sacrifice was the attestation of God to his divine mission. Bringing
down fire from heaven, then, symbolically describes the claims of this
beast to being a true prophet of the Lord.
At this point we must make a distinction which, being true in the facts
of history, must necessarily be intended in the symbolic representation.
According to the symbols of the preceding chapter the woman, or true
church, "fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of
God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and
threescore days." The time-prophecy is the same and covers the same
period as the reign of the Papal beast; therefore just as an important
change in the Papacy occured at the expiration of the prophetic period,
so also we must expect a radical change with respect to the true church:
it must no longer be completely obscured in the wilderness.
As the Reformation, and Protestantism as a religion, was the means of
ending Rome's universal spiritual supremacy, so also the same movement
must be regarded as possessing sufficient light and truth to again bring
into prominence the work of the Spirit and the true people of God. "Fire
from heaven" may therefore be regarded as describing the divine work of
reformation, the unfolding of truth accompanied by the saving power of
God. Such spiritual work has accompanied the origin of various religious
movements during the Protestant era.
The general description of the two-horned beast, however, brings into
prominence an evil characteristic--the disposition to lead people into
deception by making an image to the beast and then worshiping it. The
evil does not inhere in the work of bringing down "fire from heaven,"
but in image-making and image-worship, for which the Spiritual work
simply furnished an occasion. The Spiritual work of reformation is
therefore to be distinguished from the later work of creed- and
sect-making. And since the beast takes advantage of Spirit
manifestations, in order to deceive men, he becomes a sort of apostate
and is denominated "the _false prophet_." See Chap. 16:14; 19:20.
Ecclesiastically considered, the two-horned beast stands as the symbol
of the religious system of Protestantism as a whole--a peculiar
combination of truth and error, of good and bad, of "fire from heaven"
and false, miracle-working power (chap. 16:14); while the "image to the
beast" signifies the sectarian institution--the man-made,
man-controlled, unscriptural sect machinery manufactured in imitation of
the Papal original. To exalt such earth-born churches and lead people to
adore and worship them is but a species of idolatry and the rankest
deception. It is a sad fact that multitudes of people in Protestantism
are more devoted to their particular church than they are to the Lord
Jesus Christ. They can witness the open rejection of God's precious Word
and the vilest profanation of his holy name, without uttering a word of
protest; but let anyone say a word against _their church_, and instantly
they are aroused to the highest pitch of excitement--beast-worshipers!
The Protestant era has witnessed many wonderful reformations in which
the true fire of God fell upon waiting souls, but this initial work of
the Spirit has in each case been employed as an excuse for taking the
next step--making an image. Thousands of honest souls, lacking better
light, have been induced to submit to such human organization. But the
truly saved have always loved and adored their Lord more than the human
church to which they were attached, therefore they should not be
regarded as beast-worshipers. They are the ones whom the Lord
denominates his people when the voice is heard calling them out of
Babylon. Chap. 18:4.
The "mark of the beast" next claims our attention. The beast referred to
is the Papacy. How did the Papacy mark its subjects? Undoubtedly, by the
false spirit which animated that organization, branding them all with
its delusive doctrines and errors. In a previous chapter the servants of
God were represented as receiving the seal of God in their foreheads.
This was shown to signify the pure Word and doctrines of the Bible being
planted within them by the Holy Spirit. In making the sect image in
imitation of the Papal original, then, the principle of marking subjects
has also been copied. The members of every sect organization are
indelibly marked. You can not become one of them without solemnly
agreeing to believe the doctrines taught in their discipline and
accepting the government of their man-made institutions. Subscribing to
the rules of faith and practise that originated with the sect shows how
its members worship the image. They are also said to worship the first
beast, the original of the image. How is this fulfilled? In the same
manner that the worshipers of the first beast worshiped the dragon that
preceded it; namely, by accepting and believing false principles of
faith that originated in the system immediately preceding. Protestant
sects have transferred many of the false doctrines of Romanism to their
own creeds, hence they worship the first beast just as truly as the
Papists worshiped the dragon by accepting heathenish principles. The
greatest principle of false doctrine that originated with Catholicism,
and one that has been transferred to _every Protestant sect_, is, that a
human organization is necessary to complete the church of Christ on
earth. The church of Rome has an earthly head and a human government;
and Protestants, also, firmly believe the unscriptural doctrine that
they must bow to an organization of men and thus be under a visible
headship: they receive the mark of the beast. Many sects have also
copied other Popish doctrines, such as infant baptism, the destruction
of all outside of the pales of the church (?), infantile damnation,
sprinkling, and other things too numerous to mention. Thus, they worship
the first beast as well as his image.
They also receive the "name of the beast." Here again "beast" refers to
the Papacy. The Papal beast was represented as being full of the names
of blasphemy, which blasphemy was shown to signify the usurpation of
prerogatives and rights belonging to God alone. The greatest
ecclesiastical usurpation reached by the Romish hierarchy was that of
claiming to be the head of the church and the right to prescribe and
enforce their doctrines, naming their organization the _Holy Catholic
Church_. In making their sect organizations in imitation, Protestants,
as above stated, have transferred the same principle and make the same
blasphemous claim of a right to make disciplines to govern God's people,
and then name their sect machinery a _church_ of God. The name may be
Methodist, Baptist, Mennonite, Episcopalian, or what not, it is only a
_beast name_, yet a name that you must accept if you desire to become
one of them.
They not only receive the name of the beast, but also receive the
"number of his name." It will be necessary first to explain what is
meant by the number of a name. "The modern system of notation by the
nine digits and the cipher, was not introduced until the tenth century,
but on account of its superior excellence, has since superseded every
other. Previous to this great discovery, the letters of the alphabet
were used to denote numbers, each letter having the power of a _number_
as well as a _sound_. The same system is still retained among us for
certain purposes. The Roman letters I. V. X. L. C. D. M., have each the
power of expressing a number. This, however, was the common and the best
mode of notation that the ancients possessed." The number of a name,
therefore, was merely the number denoted by the several letters of that
name.
The number of the name of the beast--the first beast--is said to be the
number of a _man_. When we enter the Romish hierarchy and search for a
man the number of whose name will be six hundred and sixty-six, where
could we go more appropriately than to the Pope himself, its authorized
head? The Scriptures point him out particularly as the "_man_ of sin,"
"the son of perdition." 2 Thes. 2:3, 4. Has the Pope of Rome a name the
letters of which, used as numerals, make six hundred and sixty-six? Yes.
He wears in jeweled letters upon his miter the following blasphemous
inscription: _Vicarius Filii Dei_--Vicar of the Son of God. Taking out
of this name all the letters that the Latins used as numerals, we have
just six hundred and sixty-six. U and V were both formerly used to
denote five.
V ..... 5 F ..... 0
I ..... 1 I ..... 1
C ... 100 L .... 50
A ..... 0 I ..... 1
R ..... 0 I ..... 1
I ..... 1 D ... 500
U ..... 5 E ..... 0
S ..... 0 I ..... 1
---
666
In some manner the worshipers of Protestant images also receive the
number of this name--six hundred and sixty-six. The name is that of
"Vicar of the Son of God." In all Protestantism (see remarks on chapter
11:7, 8) the true Vicars of Christ on earth--the Word and Spirit of
God--have been set aside, and conferences of men have taken their places
in all the official acts relative to spiritual affairs. Hence the number
of the name applies to them as well. What that number specially
symbolizes I do not know, unless it is, as has been explained by
others--_division_. While the policy of Romanism has been that of unity,
still the false claims made by one individual can be as well made by
another, and by many, which has been the case, as just explained;
therefore it would not be improper at all to make the Pope's number a
symbol of the whole, since his system has been so largely copied by the
rest. The whole structure of sectarianism is built on the principle of
division, and it so happens that there is always enough left to divide
again. So this special number is perhaps the symbol of endless division,
signifying the great number of human organizations claiming to be
churches of Christ. The church of God, however, is built on the
principal of unity; division is destruction to its true nature and life,
for it is Christ's body.
It is further said that "no man might buy or sell, save he that had the
mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." To "buy or
sell" is to engage in the ordinary pursuits of life and have intercourse
with human society. Applying this as a symbol to the analagous
department of the church, we have the fact set forth that those without
the special mark have no more recognized standing in the so-called
churches than men that are not allowed to buy or sell have in a
community. But _selling_, as a symbol, would specially indicate the
dealing out of truth, or the preaching of the gospel. A Holy Ghost
minister in the clear light of heaven's truth, independent of all the
creeds of Babylon, will not be allowed the privilege of laboring freely
among sectarians, after the truth for which he stands becomes well
known. And if he holds meetings in the community, the members of the
sects are often warned by their leaders against "buying"--receiving--it
from the Holy Ghost minister, because of his not having the mark or name
of the beast. Their ministers are specially marked, for they come out of
their colleges and theological seminaries with the stamp of their
respective doctrines upon them and a license from the sect to enter its
ministry; and those not thus marked or designated have no place among
them. This may also explain the manner in which the beast causes those
who will not worship the image to be killed--an analagous killing;
namely, an ecclesiastical cutting-off, or excommunication, as explained
in previous chapters.[9]
[Footnote 9: The early history of Protestantism shows that at that time
the principle of religious intolerance brought over from Romanism
manifested itself in the actual putting to death of numerous dissenters.
For example see pp. 252, 291-294 of the present work. It is possible
that the persecuting principle ascribed to the two-horned beast may
include both the literal and the ecclesiastical cutting-off, reference
being made directly to the intolerant spirit.]
The facts just stated are well illustrated by the following
circumstances. A few years ago a brother in the ministry went into a
certain town to find a place to conduct a series of holiness meetings.
He was directed by a Presbyterian lady to their pastor, who, she said,
was a believer in the doctrine of holiness. When he called on the
minister and made known his errand, the first question asked him was
this, "Are you a member of the Presbyterian church?" The brother
answered in the negative. He did not have the _name of the beast_. The
next question that greeted him was this, "Do you believe the Westminster
Confession of Faith to be orthodox?" He answered, "No, sir." He did not
have the _mark of the beast_. The last question asked was, "Do you
belong to any of the various orthodox Protestant denominations?" The
brother said, "No." He did not have the _number of his name_. The answer
was, "You can not have our house."
While on a missionary trip in the Near East, the writer, in company with
another brother, attended a Seventh-Day Adventist service in Bucharest,
Roumania. After the sermon another brother requested that we be given
the opportunity to speak a little, but the request was absolutely
refused. It was explained that we would say nothing against them or
their work but only speak about salvation; but we were not permitted
even to testify in a few words. The difficulty was that we did not have
either the "mark of the beast" or its "name."
CHAPTER XIV.
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with
him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name
written in their foreheads.
2. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of
harpers harping with their harps:
3. And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and
before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn
that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which
were redeemed from the earth.
4. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they
are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever
he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the
firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
5. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without
fault before the throne of God.
There is no difficulty in identifying this company on Mount Sion as the
true people of God in marked contrast with the worshipers of all corrupt
and false religion. As to the chronology of the event, it is evident
that we have here a continuation of the same series of prophecy
beginning with the apostolic period in chapter XII, describing
alternately the true church and the false church.
At the beginning of this series the true church, symbolized by the
star-crowned woman, fled into the wilderness and was there lost to view;
while the leopard beast and the two-horned beast of chapter XIII,
symbolizing the two leading forms of organized Christianity, were
brought into prominent view. It is therefore fitting that the true
church should again appear and be given her proper position and work in
the world before the end of all earthly things.
That the company here brought to view represents the true church is
shown by its agreement with the church of God before the apostasy began.
In the seventh chapter we have seen that before the political calamities
befell the Western Roman Empire the work of sealing God's servants was
accomplished, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel
being sealed, thus representing symbolically the fact that God's church,
comprising the true Israel, was perfect and complete, no part being
omitted. In the chapter under consideration we have this divine sealing
process again after the apostasy, and once more the definite number
144,000 occurs, showing that the church before the end is to be perfect
and complete.
The contrast of this company with the ecclesiastical powers in the
preceding chapter proclaims in an unmistakeable manner the fact that we
have here described a true reformation and work of God before the end of
time. In the morning-time of the dispensation the redeemed of earth were
represented as singing praises to Christ; so also the company here
brought to view unite in singing a song which only the redeemed can
know. This company is on Mount Sion, not in the darkness of the
wilderness, they are with the Lamb, not wandering after the beast; they
are not even following the beast that was "like a lamb," but they are
with the true Lamb, the Savior of the world; they have the "Father's
name written in their foreheads," not the mark or the name of the beast.
It is said of them that "these are they which were not defiled with
women, for they are virgins." Fornication and adultery, as will be
explained later, is a symbol of spiritual idolatry; and the chastity of
this redeemed company shows that they were free from the abominations of
the apostasy. They "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." Their names
are in the book of life, and they do not worship the beast. Chap. 13:8.
Here, then, we have a symbol of the church of God in the latter days
standing distinct from the great apostasy.
6. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having
the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the
earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
7. Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him;
for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made
heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
8. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen,
is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink
of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
9. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice,
If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark
in his forehead, or in his hand,
10. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which
is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation;
and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the
presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and
ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast
and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
12. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep
the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write,
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea,
saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and
their works do follow them.
Another phase of the last reformation is here brought to view--its
communicative genius. It not only stands clear from the apostasy, but it
sounds the warnings of God and proclaims his message. The first
messenger had a very important message to deliver, even "the everlasting
gospel." His message was not limited to the inhabitants of "the
earth"--the Apocalyptic earth--only, but included "every nation, and
kindred, and tongue, and people," showing that it was of universal
importance. It was not a new gospel, but the everlasting gospel, the
same gospel preached before the long period of apostasy. There is one
phase different, however, and that is that the _nearness_ of the second
coming of Christ is a leading feature; the messenger with loud voice
warns the people to prepare for the awful judgment just at hand by
turning to "worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and
the fountains of waters." The apostle Paul cautioned the Thessalonian
brethren not to entertain the idea that the advent of Christ was then
near at hand, for it could not come until after the great period of
apostasy that he predicted; but here is a messenger now claiming that
the "_hour of his judgment is come_"--an event just at hand. He carries
his special message to all people; for Jesus declared, "This gospel of
the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations; and _then shall the end come_." Matt. 24:14. This represents
the restoration of gospel truth in the reformation that was begun about
the year A.D. 1880 and that is now being carried to all nations by a
holy ministry.
The nature of this restoration work is clearly shown. Its leading
feature is its missionary character, the proclamation of the pure gospel
to "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." Since the days
of the apostles the whole gospel has not been boldly declared and
carried forward with burning missionary zeal. Romanism and Protestantism
have conducted their missionary work and, according to chap. 16:14,
their sphere of influence will extend throughout "the whole world"; but
here is clearly set forth the fact that God has authorized another
universal message and world-wide work wholly distinguished from all
others. The contrast between the worshipers of the beast and his image
and those composing the redeemed company on Mount Sion is so clear, also
the nature of the work done by each, that we can not possibly identify
them as being one.
This work of conducting a world-wide missionary enterprise may appear to
be a gigantic task, but the seeming impossibility vanishes when we
consider the fact (to be more fully developed hereafter) that God calls
into this service all his people who are yet under the sectarian yoke.
With this great host already dispersed over the world, the work of
making known this last message can and will be accomplished.
The positive statement that the _hour_ of his judgment is come shows
that the end is exceedingly near; hence the second and third angels must
follow the first in the closest proximity possible in order to introduce
their messages before the wrath of God is poured out upon apostate
Christendom. The time is so short that these three messengers can not
possibly refer to three distinct reformations in the world; hence they
must signify three important phases in the one last reformation that
carries the gospel to all nations in the short period of an "hour,"
which time also includes the final judgment.
A careful study of these three messages will show that they are
inseparably connected. The second cry was against Babylon, that she had
fallen. Rev. 18:1, 2 proves this fall of Babylon to be a moral one--a
giving away to ungodliness, iniquity and all manner of deception.
According to chapter 16:19 the great city of Babylon is composed of
three parts, being a confederation of the dragon[10] (heathenism), the
beast (Catholicism), and the false prophet (Protestantism). Chap. 16:13,
14. It is evidently to this latter division of Babylon that this second
message applies; for Paganism was always a false religion, and
Catholicism was always a corrupt one, during whose reign the church of
God, as already shown, was separate. Protestantism, then, was the only
part of the great city that could fall morally or spiritually. During
the space of three hundred and fifty years, from the formation of the
first Protestant creed, she held reign and authority over the people of
God, who were scattered among her hundreds of opposing sects.
[Footnote 10: That the dragon should be a part of great Babylon seems at
first improbable; but in this statement reference is made, not to the
dragon in his original, or Pagan, state, but to the form in which he is
manifesting himself in these last days to deceive the nations, working
in conjunction with apostate Christendom. This phase of the dragon power
which brings him into harmony with, and, in reality, a part of, modern
Babylon, will be more clearly understood when we come to consider the
three unclean spirits that come out of the mouth of the dragon, the
beast, and the false prophet (chap. 16:13, 14), and the release of the
dragon in chapter 20:7-9.]
In this condition the faithful children of God, although bearing the
mark and name of the beast, longed for restoration of the divine,
primitive standard; but in the cloudy atmosphere of that period they
could not clearly discern the whole truth. Later, when the full tidings
of the everlasting gospel came, there came also a revelation that
Babylon is fallen and that God is calling his people out of confusion
just before the end of time.
I call to witness every child of God who has been with the present
reformation from its beginning, if there were not three special phases
of the development of the truth, as follows: 1. A wonderful revival of
spirituality among a few of God's chosen ones, caused by the
"everlasting gospel" being revealed to them as never before. 2. The
knowledge of the truth and deep experience thus obtained prepared the
way for the next step, which was the discovery that the "churches" were
a part of the great Babylon of Revelation and were in a fallen
condition, "a hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and
hateful bird." Chap. 18:2, 3. Hence the cry went up, "Babylon is fallen,
is fallen." 3. Then followed immediately the message to God's people to
"flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soul,"
warning them that no one could any longer bear the mark of the beast or
worship his image without forfeiting eternal salvation and that the
fearful judgments of heaven would soon descend upon every one who
refused to obey the message and to walk in the light. The last two
phases, which apply to Babylon, are the same and in the same order as
the description given in chapter 18:1-4. First, an angel from heaven
cries mightily with a strong voice, "Babylon the great is fallen, is
fallen"; and then "_another voice_" from heaven says, "COME OUT OF HER,
MY PEOPLE." The three successive phases of the message are now all
combined in one, and God is gathering his holy remnant "out of all
places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day" (Ezek.
34:12) into the one body of Jesus Christ. Halleluiah! John, also, saw
this glorious result of the three messages--"And I saw as it were a sea
of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over
the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of
his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they
sung the song of Moses the servant of God [a song of deliverance], and
the song of the Lamb [the song of redemption], saying, Great and
marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways,
thou king of saints." Chap. 15:2, 3. Let all the people of God rejoice!
"Hail the day so long expected,
Hail the year of full release;
Zion's walls are now erected,
And the watchmen publish peace.
"Now on Shiloh's wide dominion,
Hear the trumpets loudly roar:
Babylon's fallen, is fallen, is fallen,
Babylon's fallen to rise no more."
Those of the Lord's people who through lack of sufficient light were
yoked up with unbelievers in Protestantism, labored faithfully to
upbuild the very sectarian institutions that God was against and that
were destined to be destroyed, though they themselves were saved as by
fire; but from the time this reformation began the redeemed die in the
triumphs of a living faith, and their labors in upbuilding the true
cause and kingdom of God are still blessed and fruitful, being
perpetuated in the works that follow them.
"Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." As before mentioned, God's
people during the reign of Romanism expected her universal supremacy to
come to an end, and their patience was greatly exercised in waiting for
the appointed time to arrive. It came with a great spiritual
reformation. Then followed another period of apostasy, during which time
God's people again looked forward to something better in the future.
Many remarkable predictions of this present holiness reformation were
uttered by some of the most spiritual saints during the Protestant era,
and I can not refrain from mentioning a few of them in this connection.
D'Aubigne: "The nineteenth century is called to resume the work which
the sixteenth century was unable to accomplish." History of the
Reformation, Book XV, Chap. 1.
Fletcher: "Only He will come with more mercy, and will increase the
light that shall be at eventide, according to his promise in Zech. 14:7.
I should rather think that the visions are not yet plainly disclosed;
and that the day and hour in which the Lord will begin to make bare his
arm openly are still concealed from us. Oh, when will the communion of
saints be complete? Lord, hasten the time; and let me have a place among
them that love thee, and love one another in sincerity." This is an
extract from a letter written by John Fletcher to Mr. Wesley, dated
London, May 26, 1757, as given in Joseph Benson's life of Fletcher, pp.
39, 40.
D'Aubigne again: "In every age it has been seen how great is the
strength of an idea to penetrate the masses, to stir nations, and to
hurry them, if required, by thousands to the battle-field and to death.
But if so great be the strength of a human idea, what power must not a
heaven-descended idea possess, when God opens to it the gates of the
heart! The world has not often seen so much power at work; it was seen,
however, in the early days of Christianity, and in the time of the
Reformation; and _it will be seen in future_ ages." Book VI, Chap. 12.
"It has been said that the three last centuries, the sixteenth, the
seventeenth, and the eighteenth, may be conceived as an immense battle
of three days' duration. We willingly adopt this beautiful
comparison.... The first day was the battle of God, the second the
battle of the priest, the third the battle of reason. What will be the
fourth? In our opinion, the confused strife, the deadly contest of all
these powers together, to _end in the victory of Him to whom triumph
belongs_." Book XI, Chap. 9.
Lorenzo Dow, comment on Rev. 14:6-11; 18:1-5: "The angel, or
extraordinary messenger, with his assistants, proclaiming the fall of
Babylon will be known in his time. Also the one warning the people of
God to come out of Babylon literally, spiritually, and practically, will
be known also, and such other threatening for the omission of compliance
is not to be found in all the Bible." Dow's Works, p. 533.
The following extracts are from an old book written about 1812 by
Theophilus R. Gates and entitled "Truth Advocated." Through the kindness
of a sister living in Allegan County, Michigan, the writer was enabled
to secure the following from the only copy of this book known to be in
existence--she having borrowed it of her neighbor, a relative of its
author.
On Rev. 14:11: "I would here gladly drop the subject, lest I give
offense; but duty compels me to remark, what can not be denied, that an
inordinate attachment to certain systems and forms of religion, has
occasioned all the strifes, animosities, and persecutions, that have so
long agitated the Christian world; and if God be just, every one must
drink of the cup of his indignation, according to his offense. The beast
and his image, as it exists in Protestant countries, seems in this place
particularly meant; and our own land is full of the number of his name.
That such a testimony will one day go forth we must believe, or else St.
John saw that which will never be: and the testimony will as certainly
be received; for a company in the next chapter are to be seen that had
gotten the victory over the beast, his image, his mark, and the number
of his name. It is also equally true that as yet it has never gone
forth; and that at the time, great afflictions or suffering of some kind
will be undergone to exercise the patience of the saints.... It is at
this very time, no doubt, that the three unclean spirits, like frogs,
come out of the mouth of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet;
spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the
earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the great battle of the
great day of God Almighty. The greatest possible efforts, indeed will
now be made by all the sectarians to keep up their existence ... nor is
it any wonder that hireling ministers and system worshipers, Demetrius
like, should be stirred up and raise no small stir about the way; for it
is evident, not only their craft is in danger of being set at naught by
this testimony, but also the great Diana of systems and forms of
religion to be despised, and their magnificence destroyed, whom now
almost the whole Christian world worshipeth." Pp. 281-283.
"And now commences an era of light and suffering, when the corrupt
churches (with the kings of the earth and great men united with them)
being about to be wholly brought down, make one general muster against
Christ and his true worshipers. These things are clear to me as a ray of
light; and whoever lives at this time will see as great opposition and
spite to the true way of righteousness then set forth from sectarians
and professors generally, as there was from the Jews towards Christ and
his testimony: and also, like the Jews, at the very time they oppose the
true way of the Lord with all their might, they will no doubt make the
greatest possible show of religion, will think they are the true church,
yea will have a zeal for God, carrying on religion with great success,
forming societies, sending missionaries among the heathen, etc., etc.
That such an event will take place is very clear." Pp. 286-288.
"This happy period I never expect to see: but known unto the Lord only
are all things. I know that such a time will be; for we are assured by
the angel, these are the true sayings of God: and I also believe that it
will take place _within two centuries_ from this time. But oh! how
corrupt doth the world now appear to me.... Help me, O Lord, I pray
thee, to do thy will.
"Whenever any body of people come into notice, establish their rules and
institutions, and become a respectable sect, they are the people of God
then only in name; they cease to have the nature any longer; and whoever
unites himself to the same, constitutes himself one of the beast's
party, and so far as his influence extends, he helps to establish the
kingdom of Antichrist in the earth. This is clear from the prophecies of
the Revelation, and it will answer no purpose to take offense when the
truth is spoken. These things will, moreover, sooner or later be
declared with great plainness by some one; and then will the man of sin
put forth all his strength; then will persecution come, and the beast
muster his armies to defend himself and to destroy the assailants, but
in vain; for however few their number may be at first, and however
furious the battle may rage against them, they are destined to conquer.
And herein the words of Christ will fitly apply, 'Fear not, little
flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.'"
P. 313.
Speaking of sectarianism, he says further: "The same round of things
will continue until the evil is remedied.... When this shall take place,
time only can determine with certainty. It will probably commence
slowly, and not come with any great outward observation. Few will at
first see or embrace the way, being strange to them, and appearing on
account of their prejudices, and the way they have been taught by the
false prophet, to be wrong and improper: moreover, being opposed to all
others, they will have all others to oppose them. But though they are
despised and hated, and few in number, the Lord is with them." Pp. 322,
323.
On Rev. 16:13, 14: "I have already delivered my views with respect to
these unclean spirits ... and it is not necessary to say much here upon
the subject; only I would just observe, that this will be a time of
greater trial to Christians in general, and in a time in which more will
be deprived of every particle of true religion through the influence of
false ministers belonging to the different societies in Christendom,
than any that has ever yet been in the world. But while they are making
these great exertions, they are only preparing themselves and their
deluded votaries for a more awful and complete destruction. For God
Almighty is against them, and they against Him; though they will know it
not, but think perhaps all the while they are his peculiar favorites,
and that they are employed in maintaining his cause, like the Jews
before them, when it is only their own cause and men's traditions." P.
338.
"I am but as the voice of one crying in the wilderness of error and of
sin, of wickedness and delusion, testifying according to the best light
given me; and any light that I can possibly communicate will in a little
time become as the feeble shining of the sun, by reason of the greatness
of the light that shall be hereafter." P. 354.
"A true and living testimony will go forth before this last period of
the awful judgments of God comes to a close, and in consequence of
rejecting it, like the Jews of old, the wrath of God will come upon them
to the uttermost. The testimony against the worshipers of the beast, by
the third angel, Rev. 14:9, is the testimony that effectually overthrows
the kingdom of darkness and establishes the truth as it is in Jesus,
pure and undefiled.... The authors of this testimony will ... unlike to
all who go before them, attack the evil at its root, and expose the
deceit, hypocrisy and wickedness of the different sects in a way that
has never before been done; for which they will suffer the greatest
persecution. You may look upon these things as the reveries of my own
fancy; but some day or other, people will witness to the truth of what I
now write." Pp. 421, 422.
"All the reformations which go before this last great reform will only
be partial and temporary. They will only lop off the branches, or at the
most, only strike at the body of the corrupt tree, while the roots
remain untouched and uninjured. But when this last testimony goes forth,
the very roots of the corrupt tree will be attacked." P. 426.
"Every sect is under an idea that whenever the Lord comes to establish
truth in the earth, it will be to establish their creed, raise up their
sect, and bring the whole world into their way. And when the faithful
witnesses whom God will raise up shall openly declare that they have all
gone out of the way, that the greatest professors have so much of guile,
selfishness and party spirit about them as to be nothing but hypocrites,
and that a person must be better than they are or be lost forever; that
sects are an abomination to the Lord; denounce eternal death upon every
advocate and adherent of men-made establishments; ... I say when such a
testimony as this goes forth, as it sooner or later will, no wonder that
the sects, all with one accord, should set themselves against it--should
call it heresy--declare it will ruin the churches if it is not
suppressed.... Although, as I have before testified, I am only as the
voice of one crying in the wilderness--a mere babe in the knowledge of
these things which are to be revealed hereafter, yet I expect to raise a
host of bigots and hypocrites against me.... Nor can it be very long
before the true light, in a very especial manner, will shine.... If
these things do not come to pass, then let me be called an enthusiast or
a deceiver." Pp. 444-446.
14. And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud
one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden
crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
15. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud
voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and
reap: for the time has come for thee to reap; for the harvest of
the earth is ripe.
16. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the
earth; and the earth was reaped.
17. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven,
he also having a sharp sickle.
18. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power
over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp
sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the
clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully
ripe.
19. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and
gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great
winepress of the wrath of God.
20. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood
came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the
space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
The special characters of this vision and their work have been very
difficult for me to identify positively. Until clearer light on the
matter is received, I choose to withhold an explanation rather than to
indulge in speculation. Its usual explanation is to apply the gathering
of the harvest of the earth to the work of the reformation now taking
place and the vintage scene to the final destruction of the wicked,
their punishment being symbolized by the treading of the "winepress of
the wrath of God." This may be its signification. It is certain,
however, that in a subsequent chapter, the final judgment of the wicked
is symbolized by the treading of "the wine-press of the fierceness and
wrath of Almighty God." Beyond this I can not now speak with certainty.
CHAPTER XV.
And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven
angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up
the wrath of God.
2. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and
them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his
image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand
on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
3. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the
song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works,
Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of
saints.
4. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for
thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship
before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest:
5. And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the
tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:
6. And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven
plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their
breasts girded with golden girdles.
7. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven
golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and
ever.
8. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God,
and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the
temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were
fulfilled.
The scene presented to us in this vision is but an introduction to the
solemn scenes of awful judgment immediately following. The first thing
that attracted John's attention was a sign, great and marvelous, "seven
angels having the seven last plagues." The reason why these are
denominated the "last plagues" is because that "in them is filled up the
wrath of God." These are the completion, then, the finishing up of the
work of divine judgment against the persecutors of the church. When the
last one is poured out the work is done, the time of judgment is over.
These angels are not designed to symbolize any agencies on earth, for
they do not appear on earth; they are simply the conductors of the
Revelation. God never commissions his people on earth to perform such
great judgments upon their persecutors as the temporal judgments of the
seven last plagues will be shown to be; but, on the contrary, he has
given them the express command not to avenge themselves, but to suffer
wrong. He himself lays exclusive claim to this prerogative, saying,
"Vengeance is _mine_; I will repay, saith the Lord." Rom. 12:19.
As soon as the subject of the plagues is introduced and before they are
poured out, the narrative suddenly changes and a short history of God's
redeemed saints is given. This, perhaps, thus occurs for two reasons--to
assist us in fixing the chronology of the events described and to
encourage us with the thought that, even while the awful judgments of
God are being "made manifest" upon the haughty oppressors of earth, God
has a chosen people who have "gotten the victory over the beast, and
over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name."
They stand upon the "sea of glass, having the harps of God"--a symbol of
melody and praise--and sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.
The song of Moses was that sung by the Israelites when they had escaped
to the further side of the Red Sea, thus securing perfect deliverance
from their enemies. So, also, this company of worshipers sing a great
song of deliverance--deliverance from the beast and his image. In
chapters 4 and 5 John saw the great host redeemed before the apostasy
standing on this sea of glass, singing the song of redemption--the song
of the Lamb--but this company are enabled to sing another song as
well--the song of deliverance--for they have "gotten the victory over
the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of
his name." Halleluiah! "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God
Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints."
As before stated (chap. 8:3), the heavenly world as opened up to John
appeared symbolized after the sanctuary of the temple. By "the temple of
the tabernacle of the testimony," out of which the seven angels came
fully prepared for their work, is meant the most holy place of the
sanctuary, called "the tabernacle of the testimony" because there was
deposited in it, beneath the wings of the cherubim, the ark of the
testimony, or God's covenant. It was therefore as from the most holy
place of the sanctuary--from the very presence of the Deity--that these
angels went forth commissioned to execute the seven last plagues. This
shows that they went by the divine command as ministers of vengeance.
The purity and beauty of their attire denoted both the spotless
excellency of their characters and the justice of the work in which they
were to engage. Although theirs was a work of awful avenging judgment,
still the garments they wore would not be soiled thereby; and their
flowing robes of white were girded up with a beautiful golden girdle.
Therefore there is no inconsistency between the purity and love of God
and the work of his vengeance. It would seem to human reasoning that the
two are irreconcilable, but these symbols teach differently.
These angels received their vials (goblets) of wrath at the hands of one
of the four living creatures, who are symbols of the redeemed sons of
earth. Their deliverance by one of these doubtless denotes that these
judgments were to be executed in their behalf and in answer to their
prayers. For centuries the wrath of deadly persecutors had been poured
out upon God's people, until the cry ascended from the lips of the
martyrs, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Chap. 6:10. Now their
prayer is answered, and by their hand, as it were, the vials of wrath
are delivered with the divine sanction unto the seven angels to be
poured out upon these proud oppressors of the Lord's people. These
vials, too, were "full of wrath." What a fearful expression! _Full of
wrath_, even "_the wrath of God_, who liveth forever and ever." There
was nothing in them but wrath and that to the very brim.
As soon as the vials were delivered, "the temple was filled with smoke
from the glory of God." This symbol is taken from the Shekinah which
filled the ancient tabernacle. We read that when the tabernacle was
finished, "a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory
of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into
the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the
glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." Ex. 40:34, 35. The same thing
occurred at the dedication of Solomon's temple. "The cloud filled the
house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister
because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of
the Lord." 1 Kings 8:10, 11. So, also, in the symbol before us the glory
of God filled the temple so that no man was able to enter. This is
intended to set forth the fact that these avenging judgments were for
the manifestation of the divine glory and that there was no access to
the throne of God nor to his mercy-seat to alter them or to stay their
execution. Such is the sublime scene presented to our view preparatory
to the pouring out of the seven last great plagues.
CHAPTER XVI.
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven
angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God
upon the earth.
2. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth;
and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which
had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his
image.
A great voice out of the temple, now filled with the glory of the divine
presence, commanded the seven angels to enter upon their mission. It
came, therefore, from God, who alone fixed the time for these judgments
to begin.
Before an intelligent explanation of these plagues can be given,
however, the following points must be made clear: 1. _Where_ the vials
were poured out. 2. _Upon whom_ they were emptied. 3. _Why_ they were
thus poured out. 4. _When_ they were fulfilled, or, rather, at what time
they began to be fulfilled. These points we will first briefly consider
in the order named, after which we will discuss the _nature_ of the
plagues and their individual application.
1. The place where these vials of wrath were poured out was "upon the
earth"; that is, the Apocalyptic earth, or that portion of the earth
made the special subject of Apocalyptic vision; namely, the territory of
the ten kingdoms. The last two vials, however, will be found to embrace
a larger territory.
2. They were poured out upon those "which had the mark of the beast, and
upon them which worshiped his image." It has already been shown that the
image made by the second beast of chapter 13 was the Protestant
ecclesiastical organizations; hence the "beast" here referred to, to
which the image was made, must signify the ecclesiastical hierarchy of
Rome, the original. So the plagues fell upon the adherents of both
organized Romanism and Protestantism in Europe.
3. The reason why the judgments of the first three vials especially
descended upon them was because "they had shed the blood of saints and
prophets." Verse 6. That Romanism was a fierce oppressor of God's people
has already been noticed: Protestantism as their persecutor, also, must
now be considered further. Protestant sects after they first became
established and got power in their own hands, acted much in the same
manner as the church of Rome did before them, persecuting, banishing,
imprisoning, and even putting to death those who refused to receive
their tenets or to conform to the system of religion they had adopted.
The Lutherans, at first a pious, persecuted people, on becoming numerous
and exalted by the favor of the great, established a certain system of
religion and then, when it was in their power, persecuted, imprisoned,
banished, or put to death all that dissented. As early after the
Reformation as 1574, in a convention at Torgaw, they established the
real presence in the eucharist and instigated the Elector of Saxony to
seize, imprison, and banish all the secret Calvinists that differed from
them in sentiment, and to reduce their followers by every act of
violence, to renounce their sentiments and to confess the ubiquity.
Peucer, for his opinions, suffered ten years of imprisonment in the
severest manner. In 1577 a form of concord was produced in which the
real manducation of Christ's body and blood in the eucharist was
established and heresy and excommunication laid on all that refused this
as an article of faith, with pains and penalties to be enforced by the
secular arm. Crellius, in 1601, was put to death.
In Switzerland, before the city of Zurich was entirely safe itself from
the encroachments of Romanism, its Protestant council condemned a young
man named Felix Mantz to be drowned because he insisted that the
baby-sprinkling of Romanism was not baptism and that all who had
received the rite ought to be immersed. This sentence was carried into
effect. The severest laws were passed in different countries of Europe
against the Anabaptists, and large numbers were banished or burnt at the
stake. See Encyclopædia Britannica, Art. Anabaptists. Protestants may
claim this was because of their fanaticism on other lines; but it
remains a fact, nevertheless, that the chief sentiment at the base of
these laws was religious persecution and that Protestants sanctioned and
carried them into execution.
King Henry VIII., the founder of the Established Church in England,
adopted the most stringent laws to enforce its doctrines. Certain
articles of religion were drawn up, known in history as the "Bloody Six
Articles." Concerning these the People's Cyclopædia says: "The doctrines
were substantially those of the Roman Catholic Church. Whoever denied
the first articles (that embodying the doctrine of transubstantiation)
was to be declared a heretic, and burnt without opportunity of
abjuration; whoso spoke against the other five articles should, for the
first offense, forfeit his property; and whosoever refused to abjure his
first offense, or committed a second, was to die like a felon." Art.
Henry VIII. "The royal reformer persecuted alike Catholics and
Protestants. Thus, on one occasion, three Catholics who denied that the
king was the rightful head of the church, and three Protestants who
disputed the doctrine of the real presence in the sacrament,... were
dragged on the same sled to the place of execution." In speaking of that
period of history and of the religious persecutions of the times, Myers
says: "Punishment of heresy was then regarded, by both Catholics and
Protestants alike, as a duty which could be neglected by those in
authority only at the peril of Heaven's displeasure. Believing this,
those of that age could consistently do nothing less than labor to
exterminate heresy with axe, sword and fagot." General History, p. 553.
That religious intolerance even at a later date was practised in
England, witness the twelve years' imprisonment of John Bunyan and the
hundreds confined in jails throughout that country for not conforming to
the established religion. It was such severe persecution by that early
Protestant sect that drove the Puritans from England's fair country to
the then inhospitable shores of America, that they might have an
opportunity to worship God according to the dictates of their own
conscience. In Scotland the Covenanters "insisted on their right to
worship God in their own way. They were therefore subjected to most
cruel and unrelenting persecution. They were hunted by English troopers
over their native moors and among the wild recesses of their mountains,
whither they secretly retired for prayer and worship. The tales of the
suffering of the Scotch Covenanters at the hands of the English
Protestants form a most harrowing chapter of the records of the ages of
religious persecution." This list might be considerably augmented, but
it is unnecessary. However, that Protestant persecution and tyranny
should never reach the enormous extent of the Romanists before them is
proved by the fact that her horns were "like a lamb." Chap. 13:11.
4. It is very important for us to ascertain the _time_ for the beginning
of these plagues; for they can not be identified unless we understand
the chronology of the events described. It is a fact no one can question
that the seventh plague is the judgment of the last day, for in the
seven "is filled up" the wrath of God; hence they are denominated the
_last_ plagues. It is also a fact, well-known to all who are spiritual
and who understand the truth in the present reformation, that certain
events said to occur under the period of the sixth plague are _now_
taking place; namely, the confederation of all false religions to oppose
the people of God, led on by the "unclean spirits" that come "out of the
mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the
mouth of the false prophet." Verses 13, 14.
Therefore five of the plagues precede the time in which we are now
living. It is evident that the plagues could not begin before the
reformation; for the vials were poured out upon the "image of the
beast"--Protestantism--also. Hence we are directed to some period
between the sixteenth century and the present day for their
commencement. The reason _why_ the first judgments especially were
poured out will assist us in determining the starting-point--"They have
shed the blood of saints and prophets." This expression seems to
indicate that the time for the plagues to begin was after Romanism and
Protestantism ceased putting people to death because of their religious
sentiments. That this is the correct idea is clearly proved by what was
said to the martyrs when they cried unto God for the avenging of their
blood on them that dwell on the earth. "And it was said unto them, that
they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants
also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be
fulfilled." Chap. 6:10, 11. For additional information concerning the
terrible persecutions that followed the Sixteenth Century Reformation,
see remarks on chapter 6:10, 11.
We must now determine about what time the great persecutions referred to
ceased, or nearly ceased, and that will give us the right starting-point
from which to reckon the pouring out of the first vial. In A.D. 1685 the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, by Louis XIV. of France, took place,
and in the terrible persecutions that occurred during his reign three
hundred thousand are said to have lost their lives. The time that we are
endeavoring to establish, then, must be later than the seventeenth
century. Louis died in 1714. Persecutions continued from time to time in
France, with considerable severity, until about the middle of the
century. "Soon after this ... the flowing of heretic blood ceased,
though an effort was made in 1765 by the Popish clergy to resist the
tendency to toleration by a remonstrance to the king." History of
Romanism, p. 608. A few individual cases of persecution may have
occurred later in other countries; but in the main we are safe in
pointing to about the middle of the eighteenth century for the general
cessation of these religious _murders_. We will now consider the nature
of the first plague.
The pouring out of this vial produced the most painful malignant ulcers
upon the human body. Such ulcers are evidently not political calamities;
for the symbol is drawn, not from nature, but from human life. Still, it
is not drawn from a human being as a whole (in which case religious
events would be symbolized), but only from his body. What, then, is the
analagous object of which the human body may stand as a proper
representative? Evidently, the mind. We would naturally pass from the
bodily to the mental; and what painful ulcers are to the one, marring
its beauty and filling it with burning anguish, such are blasphemous
opinions and malignant principles to the other.
Considering the time for this plague pointed out above, the student of
Revelation who is acquainted with the history of the past will scarcely
fail to discern at once, in the striking points of this symbol, those
horrible principles of infidelity, atheism, and licentiousness, which
were spread so extensively over Europe during the latter half of the
eighteenth century, and which were the most efficient causes in bringing
about the fearful convulsions which followed in the French Revolution.
That all may understand this matter in its proper light, however, it
will be necessary to state some of the facts respecting this "noisome
and grievous sore" that fell at that time upon the inhabitants of
Europe. In writing upon the causes that led up to the French Revolution,
Mr. Wickes gathered the following facts of history mainly from the
Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge, under the articles headed
_Philosophists_ and _Illuminati_. I will quote his own language, as it
is very pointed.
"Philosophists was a name given to several persons in France, who
entered into a combination to overthrow the religion of Jesus, and
eradicate from the human heart every religious sentiment. The man more
particularly to whom this idea first occurred, was Voltaire, who being
weary (as he said himself) of hearing it repeated that twelve men were
sufficient to establish Christianity, resolved to prove that one might
be sufficient to overturn it. Full of this project, he swore, before the
year 1730, to devote his life to its accomplishment, and for some time
he flattered himself that he should enjoy alone the glory of destroying
the Christian religion. He found, however, that associates would be
necessary; and from the numerous tribe of his admirers and disciples, he
chose D'Alembert and Diderot, as the most proper persons to co-operate
with him in his designs. He contrived also to enlist Frederick II., king
of Prussia, who became one of his most zealous coadjutors, until he
found that Voltaire was waging war with the throne as well as the altar.
This, indeed, was not originally Voltaire's intention. He was vain; from
natural disposition an aristocrat, and an admirer of royalty. But when
he found that almost every sovereign but Frederick disapproved of his
ambitious designs, as soon as he perceived their issue, he determined to
oppose all the governments on earth rather than forfeit the glory with
which he flattered himself, of vanquishing Christ and his apostles in
the field of controversy.
"He now set himself, with his associates, D'Alembert and Diderot, to
excite universal discontent with the established order of things. For
this purpose, they formed secret societies, assumed new names, and
employed an enigmatical language. In their secret meetings they
professed to celebrate the mysteries of _Mythra_; and their great
object, as they professed to one another, was to confound the wretch,
meaning Jesus Christ. Hence their secret watchword was 'Crush the
wretch.' The following are some of their doctrines, as found in their
books expressly designed for general circulation. Sometimes standing out
in their naked horror, at other times enveloped in sophistry and
disguise. The Universal Cause, that God of the philosophers, of the
Jews, and of the Christians, is but a chimera and a phantom--The
phenomena of nature only prove the existence of God to a few
prepossessed men--It is more reasonable to admit, with Manes, of a
two-fold God, than of the God of Christianity--We can not know whether a
God really exists, or whether there is any difference between good and
evil, or vice and virtue--Nothing can be more absurd than to believe the
soul a spiritual being--The immortality of the soul, so far from
stimulating men to the practise of virtue, is nothing but a barbarous,
desperate, fatal tenet, and contrary to all legislation--All ideas of
justice and injustice, of virtue and vice, of glory and infamy, are
purely arbitrary, and dependent on custom--Conscience and remorse are
nothing but the foresight of those physical penalties to which crimes
expose us--The man who is above the law, can commit, without remorse,
the dishonest act that may serve his purpose--The fear of God, so far
from being the beginning of wisdom, should be the beginning of
folly--The command to love one's parents is more the work of education
than of nature--Modesty is only an invention of refined
voluptuousness--The law which condemns married people to live together,
becomes barbarous and cruel on the day they cease to love one another.
"Such were the atrocious sentiments, though sometimes artfully veiled,
which were disseminated in their books, and which, spreading all over
Europe, imperceptibly took possession of the public mind, and prepared
the way for the subversion of religion, morals, and government. As soon
as the sale of the works was sufficient to pay expenses, inferior
editions were printed and given away, or sold at a very low price;
circulating libraries of them were formed, and reading societies
instituted. While they constantly denied these productions to the world,
they contrived to give them a false celebrity through their confidential
agents and correspondents, who were not themselves always trusted with
the entire secret.
"By degrees they got possession nearly of all the reviews and periodical
publications; established a general intercourse, by means of hawkers and
pedlars, with the distant provinces; and instituted an office to supply
all schools with teachers; and thus did they acquire unprecedented
dominion over every species of literature, over the minds of all ranks
of people, and the education of the youth, without giving any alarm to
the world. The lovers of wit and polite literature were caught by
Voltaire; the men of science were perverted, and children corrupted in
the first rudiments of learning, by D'Alembert and Diderot; stronger
appetites were fed by the secret club of Baron Holbach; the imaginations
of the higher orders were set dangerously afloat by Montesquieu; and the
multitude of all ranks was surprised, confounded, and hurried away by
Rousseau. Thus was the public mind in France completely corrupted, and
the way prepared for the dreadful scenes that followed."
But there is also another chapter to the dark history of this "noisome
and grievous sore." The same author says again:
"After Voltaire had broached his system of infidel philosophy, and
brought it unto perfection, it was taken up by the celebrated Dr. Adam
Weishaupt, professor of canon law in the University of Ingolstadt, and
by him perfected as a system of light or illuminism. On the 1st of May,
1776, he founded, among the students of the above-named University, a
secret society under the name of the _Illuminati_, whose avowed object
was to diffuse the light of science, these secret societies being so
many radiating centers of light. But the science taught was the most
atrocious infidelity, and its object the overturning of all government
and religion. Free masonry, being in high repute all over Europe when
Weishaupt first formed the plan of his society, he availed himself of
its secrecy to introduce his new order, which rapidly spread, by the
efforts of its founders and disciples, through all those countries, and
found its way even to the United States. It would not be possible here
to give even an outline of the nature and constitution of this
extraordinary society--of its secrets and mysteries--of the deep
dissimulation, consummate hypocrisy, and shocking impiety of its founder
and his associates--of their Jesuitical arts in concealing their real
objects, and their incredible industry and astonishing exertions in
making converts--of the absolute despotism and complete system of
_espionage_ established throughout the order--of the blind obedience
exacted of the _novices_, and the absolute power of life and death
assumed by the order and conceded by the novices--of the pretended
morality, real blasphemies, and absolute atheism of the founder and his
tried friends. Reference can only be made to these things as
well-established facts.
"It is important here to bear in mind one or two facts, in order to
realize what an engine of corruption this secret organization of the
_Illuminati_ was. One fact is, the high popularity which these secret
societies at that period enjoyed. It was unbounded. There is something
which commends such secret organizations most powerfully to the depraved
human nature. Men love them because they are secret, and because they
can wield such tremendous power. The other fact to be considered, is the
absence, to a such vast extent, of the controlling elements of true
religion in the European mind, and its predisposition to skepticism. The
Reformation of the Sixteenth Century had broken the shackles of priestly
Papal superstition over the human mind; and [true] evangelical doctrine
not being introduced to supply the vacuum, the mass swung readily over
from the regions of dark superstition to blank atheism. Thus were the
elements ready prepared to hand for such spirits as Voltaire,
D'Alembert, Diderot, Weishaupt, and others, to work upon, and by reason
of their secret powerful agencies, to mould to their own liking.
"It was now this damning system of infidelity, under the specious name
of philosophy, light, and science, spread with such untiring industry
over the European mind, that unhinged the whole framework of society,
and prepared it, like a vast magazine, for an awful explosion. All the
principles that held society together in the fear of God and future
retribution--regard for human law--respect for magistrates, parents, and
the marriage-tie--yea, in the very distinctions of virtue and vice, had
been unsettled or taken away. They had been reasoned down and laughed
out of the world; and when these only restraints, which God has imposed
upon human selfishness and passion were removed, what was then to hold
back those fierce passions and that deep selfishness from the most
unbounded excesses? God was no more feared--government was no more
sacred--religion was a delusion--immorality was a lie--virtue was a
name--the marriage-tie was a farce--modesty was refined voluptuousness:
and when men were persuaded of these things, society began to roll and
heave under the long swells of that portentous storm of wrath which was
soon to break, in all its desolating fury, over the earth."
In the facts here presented it may be seen how far we are justified in
applying to them this first vial of wrath. The vial was poured out "upon
the earth"--on the inhabitants of the ten kingdoms when in a state of
tranquility. This was their condition, unsuspicious of danger, when the
dread infection was spread through society. According to the testimony
of Pres. Dwight, within ten years from the first establishment of the
Illuminati, in 1776, "they were established in great numbers through
Germany, Sweden, Prussia, Poland, Austria, Holland, France, Switzerland,
Italy, England, Scotland, and America. They spread with a rapidity which
nothing but fact could have induced any sober mind to believe."
This system of infidelity is well symbolized by a noisome, grevious
ulcer, which is loathsome to the sight, offensive to the smell,
corrupting to the body, and productive of awful pain. That it appeared
so to others besides the author of the Revelation is shown by the
following epithets which Burke, the celebrated English orator, applied
to the spirit of the French Revolution, which was only the discharged
virus of these ulcers. He styled it "the fever of Jacobinism;" "the
epidemic of atheistical fanaticism;" "an evil lying deep in the
corruptions of human nature;" "such a plague, that the precaution of the
most severe quarantine ought to be established against it." The result,
he says, was "the corruption of all morals," "the decomposition of all
society." What greater plague could fall upon Romanism and Protestantism
than this fearful scourge of infidelity?
I have dwelt for a considerable length of time upon this subject,
because of its deep interest, and also because I desired to verify the
application of the symbol as much as possible, on account of its close
connection with the pouring out of the vials which follow.
3. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it
became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in
the sea.
This vial was poured out upon the "sea." The sea is a large body of
water within the earth, subject to violent storms and agitations. As a
symbol it would denote some central power or kingdom within the symbolic
earth in a state of revolution. The effects produced by this vial were
two-fold--the waters were changed into blood as of a dead man, and all
the living creatures in the sea died. The waters of the sea represent
the inhabitants of this kingdom (see a similar explanation of _water_ in
chap. 17:15) as the earth does the inhabitants of the empire, or the ten
kingdoms. The living creatures in the sea, therefore, could signify the
rulers and princes of the kingdom, as they bear an analagous relation to
the people that fishes do to the waters. The statement that the waters
of the sea became "as the blood of a dead man" is doubtless intended to
signify a much more dreadful state of things than if they had simply
been changed to blood. They were converted into black and poisonous, or
corrupt, blood. This denotes the vast slaughter and massacre of the
inhabitants of this kingdom; while the death of the living creatures
denotes the extinction of those in power.
It may appear at first that making the conversion of water into blood a
symbol of bloodshed is adopting the literal method of interpretation;
but not so, and for the following reason: The symbol is taken from
nature, the waters of the sea representing the inhabitants of the
kingdom. The waters are changed into an unnatural state or element, that
of blood, and this change denotes an analagous one passing upon the
inhabitants. Their continuing in life would be their remaining as
waters: their massacre and destruction would be the waters changed to
blood--a horrible and unnatural element. Likewise, the death of the
living things in the sea is a similar destruction overtaking the kings,
rulers, and princes.
With our understanding of the nature of the first vial, which prepared
the way for the pouring out of this one, we shall have no difficulty
whatever in identifying this symbol with the terrible convulsions of the
French Revolution. It followed as a necessary consequence of the first.
Voltaire and his coadjutors had insulted and trampled in the dust
everything held sacred in human eyes, and this fully prepared the way
for the scenes of terror that followed.
In studying these vials the reader should bear in mind constantly the
reason _why_ they were sent as judgments upon the nations of
Europe--because of their former oppression of God's people. From the
days when the Popes received their first temporal authority at the hands
of the Carlovingian king, Pepin and Charlemagne, France[11] constituted
the real backbone of the Papacy, the very center of her power and
authority, as all history will show. In the fourteenth century the Papal
seat was removed from Rome to Avignon, in France, where it remained for
about seventy years. During this period all the Popes were French, and
"all their policies were shaped and controlled by the French kings." To
write a history of the Papacy during the Dark Ages is to outline the
history of France, so closely are their affairs interwoven. Hence it is
only natural that she should be symbolized as the "sea" in this part of
the Apocalypse, with the other nations as tributaries. Ver. 4-6. That
the French Revolution was in its effects a terrible blow to the thrones
of despotism throughout Europe is shown by the following quotation from
the Encyclopædia Britannica: "We are coming to the verge of the French
Revolution, which _surpasses all other revolutions the world has seen_
in its completeness, the largeness of its theatre, the long preparation
for it ... its _influence on the modern history of Europe_." Art.
France.
[Footnote 11: Pepin and Charlemagne were, properly speaking, simply
German princes reigning in Gaul. The kingdom of France is usually dated
from the accession of the first of the Capetian kings, late in the tenth
century, 987. However, the Frankish nation, of whom the Carlovingian
kings were leaders, laid the foundation of the French kingdom and gave a
new name to Gaul--France.]
This revolution commenced on the fifth of May, 1789, in the Convocation
of the States General, for the redress of grievances and the extrication
of the government and nation from the difficulties under which they were
laboring. A conflict had been going on between despotism and popular
rights, the throne and nobility contending for absolute power, and the
people, for freedom. But when in this encounter the popular party
triumphed, there was no fear of God before the eyes of those who seized
the reins of government. The infidelity of Voltaire and his associates
had removed the last restraint upon human passion, and the scenes of
terror that followed are without a parallel in history. The king was
condemned to death and executed. The barbarous execution of the queen,
Marie Antoinette, followed in about six months, and this was immediately
succeeded by the decree of the National Convention, of the most infamous
character, that of the violation of the tombs of St. Dennis and the
profanation of the sepulchres of the kings of France. I will quote from
Sir A. Alison's noted History of Europe:
"By a decree of the Convention, these venerable asylums of departed
greatness were ordered to be destroyed.... A furious multitude
precipitated itself out of Paris; the tombs of Henry IV., of Francis I.,
and of Louis XII., were ransacked, and their bones scattered in the air.
Even the glorious name of Turenne could not protect his grave from
spoilation. His remains were almost undecayed, as when he received the
fatal wound on the banks of the Lech. The bones of Charles V., the
savior of his country, were dispersed. At his feet was found the coffin
of the faithful Du Gueselin, and the French hands profaned the skeleton
before which English invasion had rolled back. Most of these tombs were
found to be strongly secured. Much time, and no small exertion of skill
and labor, were required to burst their barriers. They would have
resisted forever the decay of time or the violence of enemies; they
yielded to the fury of domestic dissension. This was followed
immediately by a general attack upon the monuments and remains of
antiquity throughout all France. The sepulchres of the great of past
ages, of the barons and generals of the feudal ages, of the
paladins, and of the crusaders, were involved in one undistinguished
ruin. It seemed as if the glories of antiquity were forgotten, or sought
to be buried in oblivion. The tomb of Du Gueselin shared the same fate
as that of Louis XIV. The skulls of monarchs and heroes were tossed
about like foot balls by the profane multitude; like the grave-diggers
in Hamlet, they made a jest of the lips before which the nations had
trembled."
Having begun by waging this profane warfare upon their own glorious
dead, another scene of the fatal drama immediately succeeded. The same
author continues: "Having massacred the great of the present and
insulted the illustrious of former ages, nothing remained to the
revolutionists but to direct their vengeance against heaven itself.
Pache, Hebert, and Chaumette, the leaders of the municipality publicly
expressed their determination 'to dethrone the God of heaven, as well as
the monarchs of earth.' To accomplish this design, they prevailed on
Gobet, the apostate constitutional bishop of Paris, to appear at the bar
of the Assembly, accompanied by some of the clergy of his diocese, and
there abjure the Christian faith. He declared 'that no other national
religion was now required but that of Liberty, equality, and morality.'
Many of the constitutional bishops and clergy in the Convention joined
in the proposition. Crowds of drunken artisans and shameless prostitutes
crowded to the bar, and trampled under their feet the sacred vases,
consecrated for ages to the holiest purposes of religion. The churches
were stripped of all their ornaments; their plate and valuable contents
brought in heaps to the municipality and the Convention, from whence
they were sent to the mint to be melted down. Trampling under foot the
images of our Savior and the Virgin, they elevated, amid shouts of
applause, the busts of Marat and Lepelletier, and danced around them,
singing parodies on the Halleluiah, and dancing the Carmagnole.
"Shortly after a still more indecent exhibition took place before the
assembly.... Hebert and Chaumette, and their associates, appeared at the
bar and declared 'that God did not exist, and that the worship of Reason
was to be substituted in his stead.' A veiled female, arrayed in blue
drapery, was brought into the Assembly; and Chaumette, taking her by the
hand, 'Mortals,' said he, 'cease to tremble before the powerless
thunders of a God whom your fears have created. Henceforth acknowledge
no divinity but Reason. I offer you its noblest and purest image; if you
must have idols, sacrifice only to this.' When, letting fall the veil,
he exclaimed, 'Fall before the august Senate of Freedom, O Veil of
Reason!' At the same time, the goddess appeared personified by a
celebrated beauty, the wife of Momoro, a printer, known in more than one
character to most of the Convention. The goddess after being embraced by
the president, was mounted on a magnificent car, and conducted, amid an
immense crowd, to the cathedral of Notre Dame, to take the place of the
Deity. There she was elevated on a high altar, and received the
adoration of all present, while the young women, her attendants, whose
alluring looks already sufficiently indicated their profession, retired
into the chapels around the choir, where every species of licentiousness
and obscenity was indulged in without control, with hardly any veil from
the public gaze. To such a length was this carried, that Robespierre
afterward declared that Chaumette deserved death for the abominations he
had permitted on that occasion. Thenceforward that ancient edifice was
called the _Temple of Reason_."
Such horrible events are sickening to relate; but as I started out to
describe the condition of this "sea" when it became as the blood of a
dead man, I must be faithful to the task. God was now dethroned; the
services of religion abandoned; every tenth day set apart for the
hellish orgies of atheism and Reason; Marat was deified; the instrument
of death sanctified by the name "the holy Guillotine"; on the public
cemeteries was inscribed, "Death is an Eternal Sleep"; marriage was a
civil contract, binding only during the pleasure of the contracting
parties. Mademoiselle Arnout, a celebrated comedian, expressed the
public feeling when she said, "_Marriage the sacrament of adultery_."
What an awful harvest would be expected of such seed! Alison continues:
"A Revolutionary Tribunal was formed at Nantes, under the direction of
Carrier, and it soon outstripped even the rapid march of Danton and
Robespierre. Their principle was that it was necessary to destroy _en
masse_, all the prisoners. At their command was formed a corps, called
the Legion of Marat, composed of the most determined and bloodthirsty of
the revolutionists, the members of which were entitled, on their own
authority, to incarcerate any person whom they chose. The number of
their prisoners was soon between three and four thousand, and they
divided among themselves all their property. Whenever a further supply
of captives was wanted, the alarm was spread of a counter-revolution,
the _generale_ beat, the cannon planted; and this was followed
immediately by innumerable arrests. Nor were they long in disposing of
their captives. The miserable wretches were either slain with poinards
in prison, or carried out in a vessel and drowned by wholesale in the
Loire. On one occasion a hundred 'fanatical priests,' as they were
termed, were taken out together, striped of their clothes, and
precipitated into the waters.... Women big with child, infants eight,
nine, and ten years of age, were thrown together into the stream, on the
sides of which men, armed with sabres, were placed to cut off their
heads if the waves should throw them undrowned on the shore.
"On one occasion, by orders of Carrier, twenty-three of the
revolutionists, on another twenty-four, were guillotined without any
trial. The executioner remonstrated, but in vain. Among them were many
children of seven or eight years of age, and seven women; the
executioner died two or three days after, with horror at what he himself
had done. So great was the multitude of captives who were brought in on
all sides, that the executioners, as well as the company of Marat,
declared themselves exhausted with fatigue; and a new method of
disposing of them was adopted, borrowed from Nero, but improved on the
plan of that tyrant. A hundred or a hundred and fifty victims, for the
most part women and children, were crowded together in a boat, with a
concealed trap-door in the bottom, which was conducted into the middle
of the Loire; at a signal given, the crew leaped into another boast, the
bolts were withdrawn, and the shrieking victims precipitated into the
waters, amid the laughter of the company of Marat, who stood on the
banks to cut down any who approached the shore. This was what Carrier
called his _Republican Baptisms_. The _Republican Marriages_ were, if
possible, a still greater refinement of cruelty. Two persons of
different sexes, bereft of every species of dress, were bound together,
and after being left in torture in that situation for half an hour,
thrown into the river. Such was the quantity of corpses accumulated in
the Loire, that the water of that river was affected, so as to render a
public ordinance necessary, forbidding the use of it to the inhabitants;
and the mariners, when they heaved their anchors, frequently brought up
boats charged with corpses. Birds of prey flocked to the shores and fed
on human flesh; while the very fish became so poisonous, as to induce an
order of the municipality of Nantes, prohibiting them to be taken by the
fishermen.
"The scenes in the prisons which preceded these horrible executions
exceeded all that romance had figured of the terrible. Many women died
of terror the moment a man entered their cells, conceiving that they
were about to be led out to the noyades; the floors were covered with
the bodies of their infants, numbers of whom were yet quivering in the
agonies of death. On one occasion, the inspector entered the prison to
seek for a child, where, the evening before, he had left above three
hundred infants; they were all gone in the morning, having been drowned
the preceding night. Fifteen thousand persons perished either under the
hands of the executioner, or of disease in prison, in one month: the
total victims of the Reign of Terror at that place exceeded thirty
thousand."
After narrating scenes of terror in Paris, Alison says again: "Such
accumulated horrors annihilated all the charities and intercourse of
life. Before daybreak the shops of the provision merchants were besieged
by crowds of women and children, clamoring for the food which the law of
the _maximum_ in general prevented them from obtaining. The farmers
trembled to bring their fruits to the market, the shop-keepers to expose
them to sale. The richest quarters of the town were deserted; no
equipages of crowds of passengers were to be seen on the streets; the
sinister words, _Propriete Nationale_, imprinted in large characters on
the walls, everywhere showed how far the work of confiscation had
proceeded. Passengers hesitated to address their most intimate friends
on meeting; the extent of calamity had rendered men suspicious even of
those they loved most. Every one assumed the coarsest dress, and the
most squalid appearance; an elegant exterior would have been the certain
forerunner of destruction. At one hour only were any symptoms of
animation seen: it was when the victims were conveyed to execution; the
humane fled with horror from the sight, the infuriated rushed in crowds
to satiate their eyes with the sight of human agony.
"Night came, but with it no diminution of the anxiety of the people.
Every family early assembled its members; with trembling looks they
gazed around the room, fearful that the very walls might harbor
traitors. The sound of a foot, the stroke of a hammer, a voice in the
streets, froze all hearts with horror. If a knock was heard at the door,
every one, in agonized suspense, expected his fate. Unable to endure
such protracted misery, numbers committed suicide. 'Had the reign of
Robespierre,' said Freron, 'continued longer, multitudes would have
thrown themselves under the guillotine; the first of social affections,
the love of life, was already extinguished in almost every heart.'"
With one more quotation from this historian I will dismiss this horrible
theme: "The combination of wicked men who thereafter governed France, is
without parallel in the history of the world. Their power, based on the
organized weight of the multitude, and the ardent co-operation of the
municipalities, everywhere installed by them in the position of power,
was irresistible. All bowed the neck before this gigantic assemblage of
wickedness. The revolutionary excesses daily increased, in consequence
of the union which the constant dread of retribution produced among
their perpetrators. There was no medium between taking part in these
atrocities, and falling a victim to them. Virtue seemed powerless;
energy appeared only in the extremity of resignation; religion in the
heroism of which death was endured. There was not a hope left for
France, had it not been for the dissentions which, as the natural result
of their wickedness, sprung up among the authors of the public
calamities.
"It is impossible not to be struck, in looking back on the fate of these
different parties, with the singular and providential manner in which
their crimes brought about their own punishment. No foreign
interposition was necessary, no avenging angel was required to vindicate
the justice of divine administration. They fell the victims of their own
atrocity, of the passions which they themselves had let loose, of the
injustice of which they had given the first example to others The
Constitutionalists overthrew the ancient monarchy, and formed a limited
government; but their imprudence in raising popular ambition paved the
way for the tenth of August, and speedily brought themselves to the
scaffold; the Girondists established their favored dream of a republic,
and were the first victims of the fury which it excited; the Dantonists
roused the populace against the Gironde, and soon fell under the axe
which they had prepared for their rivals; the anarchists defied the
power of 'heaven itself,' but scarce were their blasphemies uttered,
when they were swept off by the partners of their bloody triumphs. One
only power remained, alone, terrible, irresistible. This was the power
of Death, wielded by a faction steeled against every feeling of
humanity, dead to every principle of justice. In their iron hands, order
resumed its sway from the influence of terror; obedience became
universal, from the extinction of hope. Silent and unresisted, they led
their victims to the scaffold, dreaded alike by the soldiers who
crouched, the people who trembled, and the victims who suffered. The
history of the world _has no parallel_ to that long night of suffering,
because _it has none to the guilt which preceded it_; tyranny never
assumed so hideous a form, because licentiousness never required so
severe a punishment."
Prom this awful description, which might be carried to almost any
extent, the reader will understand the force of the prophecy which
declared that the "sea became as the blood of a dead man, and every
living soul died in the sea."
4. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and
fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous,
O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast
judged thus.
6. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou
hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
7. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God
Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
Fountains and rivers are tributaries to the sea, and thus, they
symbolize the inferior communities and nations belonging to the
Apocalyptic earth. France was the great central power and the sea of
revolution upon which the second vial descended. The surrounding nations
were the rivers and fountains upon which the third was poured. It is not
said of them that they became as the blood of a dead man, nor that every
living thing in them died, but only that "they became blood." This
symbol denotes the insurrections and desolating wars in which the
nations of Europe were involved for a number of years, growing out of
the French Revolution. I shall not here take time nor space to enter
into the historical details relating to this statement; the facts are
well known. "The blood-thirsty Jacobinism of France waged war not only
upon its own monarchy, but sought to overturn all the thrones and
fabrics of despotism in Europe. The same system of infidelity and
atheism had been spread through the kingdoms there, though not to so
great an extent as in France, and prepared the elements for revolution
in them likewise." The French republic encouraged these agitations and
by a unanimous decree of the Assembly, in 1792, set itself in open
hostility with all the established governments of Europe. It was in
these words: "The National Convention declares in the name of the French
nation, that it will grant fraternity and assistance to all people who
wish to recover their liberty; and it charges the executive power to
send the necessary orders to the generals, to give succor to such
people, and to defend those citizens who have suffered, or may suffer in
the cause of liberty." "The Revolution, having accomplished its work in
France, having there destroyed royal despotism, ... now set itself about
fulfilling its early promise of giving liberty to all peoples. In a
word, the revolutionists became propagandists. France now exhibits what
her historians call her social, her communicative genius." Napoleon was
right when he said that a revolution in France was sure to be followed
by a revolution throughout Europe. "France conceived the idea that she
had a Divine mission, as the great apostle of liberty, to propagate
republicanism through all the kingdoms of Europe. In her madness of
intoxication she undertook the work, threw down the gauntlet, and the
fierce tocsin of war sounded from nation to nation, until the continent
was converted into one vast battle-field."
The "angel of the waters" signifies the angel that had charge of the
vial of wrath poured out upon the rivers and fountains of waters. In
full view of the awful plagues sent upon the inhabitants of earth, one
grand thought seemed to occupy his mind--the righteousness of these
judgments. It is not such a thought as humanity would have in mind when
reading the history of these fearful convulsions of society, one scene
of terror only preparing the way for another more horrible, until they
would feel like closing the book and asking, "When will this awful night
of horror be over? When will these avenging judgments cease?" These,
however, were not the thoughts of this angel clothed in spotless
garments; for, draining his vial to the dregs and forcing the nations to
drink it, he said: "Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and
shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of
saints and prophets, and thou hast given them _blood to drink_; for they
are worthy." Truly, in this the Word of God is fulfilled, which says,
"My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." Isa.
55:8. That class of people who represent God as a kind, loving Father
only, one who will not take vengeance upon the objects of his own
creation--let them visit in the pages of history these nations of
Europe, scathed and blasted with the hot thunderbolts of divine wrath,
until their minds sicken with horror at the sight of human agony and
blood. In full view of these horrifying scenes let them hear the angel
of the waters saying, "Thou art righteous, O Lord ... because thou hast
judged thus; for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and
thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy"; while another
voice from heaven, even from the altar, replies, "Even so, Lord God
Almighty, _true and righteous_ are thy judgments"--and their theology
must here break down.
The thoughts just expressed confirm with certainty our interpretation of
the "sea" and "rivers and fountains of waters" as signifying those
nations which had been the persecutors of the saints, and show, also,
the character of the divine judgments as being the shedding of their
blood. They had shed the blood of saints and prophets, and now the same
cup of wrath was placed to their lips, and they were forced to drink it
to the dregs. God remembered the sighs and groans of his faithful
followers; the cry of the martyrs for the avenging of their blood on
"them that dwell on the earth" reached his ear; and now the time of
retribution began.
8. And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and
power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the
name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they
repented not to give him glory.
The sun is the great central luminary of the earth, under whose genial
light and warmth everything rejoices and develops in forms of beauty.
When, however, a scorching power is given to his rays, the earth becomes
as a furnace in which every green thing is burnt up. What the sun is to
this world, such are the ruling powers to a kingdom; and power being
given them to scorch as with fire denotes that the government would be
administered, not for the good of the people, but for the purpose of
oppression. A scorching sun, therefore, is a proper symbol of tyrant
rulers.