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Chapter 7 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 (Revelation 13:11). We have yet to identify the second beast of Revelation 13. This verse alone provides evidence of the identity of the second beast. Beasts, as we have seen, represent nations and powers. Thus the lion of Daniel 7 represented Babylon, the bear, Medo-Persia, the leopard, Greece, and the nondescript beast, Rome. The ten-horned and seven-headed beast of Revelation 13 represented the Papacy. Scripture, itself, plainly states that the four beasts of Daniel 7 represent kingdoms, as in a similar way today, a bear represents Russia, the eagle—United States, the kangaroo—Australia, and the panda—China.
So we must search for another nation which emerged about the time that the first beast received its deadly wound (1798) for that is the time-frame of the prophecy of Revelation 13. Further, there are two points of marked distinction between the two beasts of Revelation. The first is that the papal beast arose "up out of the sea" (Revelation 13:1). In contrast, the second beast arose "up out of the earth." These contrasting origins are not inconsequential. The second contrast is that the first beast was a composite of ferocious animals — lion, bear, and leopard (Revelation 13:2). The second beast is initially represented as a gentle beast bearing "two horns like a lamb" (Revelation 13:11). With these two marked contrasts, united with the era of its rise to power, the identity can be made. Firstly, what does sea or waters represent in the prophecies of Revelation? The meaning of the symbolism is explained in the book itself.
Without question the Papacy arose upon a continent which was well populated with multitudes. By contrast the second beast, in arising from the earth, was to emerge in a continent sparsely populated. Were any nations emerging in underpopulated continents around 1798? Yes, there were two. In 1776, a small nation of three million people, largely confined to the east coast of a large continent, won its independence from the United Kingdom. Of course that nation was the United States. Twenty-two years later it was still in the preliminary stages of forging its destiny. The other nation was Australia which commenced as a convict settlement precisely a decade prior to the inflicting of the "deadly wound." Both these nations arose in sparsely populated continents. In 1798, Australia’s white population was still counted in the thousands. When the white convicts and their penal guards arrived ten years earlier, there was an estimate of 300,000 - 500,000 aboriginals thinly spread over the almost 3,000,000 square miles (more than 7,000,000 square kilometers) of the continent. However, the prophecy leaves us in no doubt as to which of these two nations fitted the prophetic depiction. The Papacy arose as a fierce power. Its brutal treatment of religious dissenters and its pursuit of its political agenda leave no cause to deny the representation as a ferocious beast. The United States arose in a gentle atmosphere. The two horns of the lamb could aptly symbolize its establishment of both religious and civil liberties. No penal colony, like Australia, with its cruel exactions upon prisoners, could possibly have been described in terms of a lamb. It may not have had the ferocious history of the Papacy, but it most certainly was no lamb either. But further, as we study the future history of the second beast, it must be a nation possessing enormous worldwide influence and power. Here the United States stands unchallenged. Let us examine the dire prophecies concerning this second beast. It has already been seen that he was later to speak as a dragon. The Bible explains who the dragon is.
This is curious. The United States has been recognized as a Christian nation, seeking to inculcate Christian values into the society. But this prophecy is too plain to ignore. It will alter this noble course and rather do a work contrary to God’s will. We are told what that work will be.
Here, once more, we notice that the issue at stake is worship. With its worldwide influence, the United States will exert similar coercive means used by the historic Papacy to enforce the agenda of the Papacy. The Apostolic Letter of May 28, 1998, Ad Tuendum Fidem, which introduces a number of new punitive canons should leave no doubt that the Papacy has once more considered the need to punish heretics. We must not lose sight of the fact that the penalties were unspecified and the recipients of such penalties were equally undefined ("whoever" and "a person"). Clearly, remarkable miracles will be performed by the second beast and these will be urged as evidence that the movement to support the aims of the Papacy is God-ordained. We must never forget that Satan is perfectly capable of performing certain miracles, as occurred when Moses and Aaron appeared before Pharaoh.
The ability to call fire down from heaven will be compelling evidence to many imperceptive Christians that the support of the papal agenda is the work of God. The example of Elijah upon Mount Carmel is bound to be recalled. In that case God manifestly prevented Satan from counterfeiting the divine miracle. But, in a test of mankind’s fidelity to Scripture as the only certain guide to truth, Satan will, in the last days, counterfeit the working of God through Elijah on Mount Carmel. The popularity of the ecumenical movement in the United States, as in other nations, is bound to serve as a spearhead for the American simulation of papal methods, power, and aims as it develops its "image to the beast." Every thinking individual knows full well that one Christian sect alone will ultimately benefit from the ecumenical thrust and that is the Roman Catholic Church. To this common sense observation the Bible fully attests. So successful will this movement be that all but a small, dedicated group of Christians will unite in the single religion forged by the Papacy and enforced by American might. After all, the proven most successful evangelistic technique has been the enactment of severe penalties imposed upon dissenters. It is amazing how many, devoid of genuine conviction, will come to heel under such conditions. Such laws will be legislated as we shall see. Both an economic boycott and the death penalty will be imposed upon those who refuse to accept the observance of the papal Sabbath.
Many will refuse to accept the plain evidence of Scripture, but as the days roll by they will see that God’s word will not be mocked. It is certain and it will be fulfilled. Presently a great wave of Sunday laws are being promoted around the world. On April 4, 1998 the city of Bendigo in Australia held a Sunday-law referendum promoted by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Uniting Church of Australia (a union of Methodists, Congregationalists, and a segment of Presbyterians) (Melbourne Sunday Herald, Sunday, April 5, 1998). In the Netherlands in March 1998, the Netherlands Council of Churches promoted a petition to the Government of the Netherlands, pushing for the enactment of a single day of worship for all. On March 1, 1998 the Lincoln Sunday Journal Star reported the discussions in the Nebraska State Senate on the subject of a Sunday rest day. Incredibly, Pakistan, a nation of 120,000,000 citizens, 95 percent of whom adhere to the Islamic faith, altered its rest day from Friday to Sunday on April 1, 1997 (Deccan Herald, April 2, 1997). In 1998 Norway, with bipartisan political support, enacted a Sunday rest day. Almost all of these moves have been supported on the grounds that we need a social day — a day for the family, for relaxation, for rest. But behind such admirable aims is a religious agenda. Why is it necessary for any government to force a rest day, selected by it, upon its citizens? Governments possess the prerogative to recommend health measures to their citizens, but the principle of civil liberty surely demands that the citizen has the right to accept or reject the advice. As for selecting a specific day and enforcing it, even if the majority of citizens acquiesce, this is a breach of both civil and even more importantly, religious liberty. It should be resisted by all clear-thinking citizens. The campaign of the churches in Bendigo, Australia was named "Save Our Sundays." The four major religious sects which promoted this Sunday law referendum chose a particularly inappropriate slogan. Every convicted Sunday-keeper is entitled to the free exercise of his faith — that is true religious liberty. However, in Bendigo there was no move to restrict Sunday-keeping. Ever since the city was founded 150 years ago, convicted Sunday-keepers have been afforded the right to worship in their churches on Sunday, to close their businesses on Sunday, to refrain from shopping on Sunday, and to educated their children on days other than Sunday. There was nothing from which to save Sunday. The real aim of the campaign of this ecumenical combination of Roman Catholics and Protestants was to impose their convictions upon those who did not share with them these identical convictions. It was a direct effort to withdraw religious liberty from one section of the populace. Fortunately, when such matters were brought to the attention of the city’s citizenry they rejected the proposal by a 78 percent "No" vote. But Scripture indicates that it will not always be so. Fueling the Sunday-law movement are the apparitions of Mary. In the United States a report of an apparition of Mary has received widespread circulation. A video tape, entitled Prophecy and the New Times*, documenting numerous appearances and what she said, has found a ready reception in the United States. She has been quoted as having warned of dire disasters coming upon the United States. She assured Americans that she is desirous of pleading with our Heavenly Father to stay these natural catastrophes. However there is an impediment to the positive response to her plea. This impediment, she asserts, is the failure to keep Sunday holy. She refers to four matters which require rectification — shopping on Sundays, the playing of competitive sports on Sundays, absence from Mass, and failure to attend confession. When these breaches of Sunday sacredness are corrected, Mary has assured Americans that our Heavenly Father is sure to hold back these fearful disasters. Christ has warned of fearful natural disasters at the end of time. He told His disciples that famines, pestilences, and earthquakes would occur (Matthew 24:7). Mary’s warning, therefore, is certain to be fulfilled, and is presently in the process of being fulfilled to a limited extent. Mary "believers" are all too ready to accept Mary’s warning as messages from God. In the minds of many, the fact that Satan is capable of deception is rarely considered. Yet on four occasions Jesus, in His discourse on last-day events, warned against deceptions (Matthew 24:4, 5, 11, 24). Indeed, the last of these verses warns that the deceptions will be so great that they, if it were possible, would deceive the very elect. How may humans decide if an apparition is godly or a satanic deception? The Bible provides one sure way.
Thus the Bible is the only sure guide. So let us judge these apparitions of Mary by this criterion. Firstly, we know that Mary is dead, so let us review the testimony of Scripture on this subject. The Bible refers to death as a sleep, not as an alert condition.
The Scriptures also declare that the dead know nothing.
The entire focus of Scripture is that the righteous dead are raised to eternal life at the second coming of Christ.
Since Mary is dead she knows nothing and possesses no thoughts. She is "asleep" in Jesus, awaiting His return and the resurrection. Then the Mary of the apparitions is manifestly a deception. No matter how sweet and loving she may appear, no matter how elevated her speech, she is the result of spiritism. Satan is the master impersonator. He impersonated Samuel when King Saul visited the witch of Endor. We further know that the counterfeit Mary of the apparitions is not of God, for she advocates Sunday worship, the external mark of the beast. The state of man in death is a crucial matter, for we will surely be deceived by the devil if we do not accept the plain Bible truth that we "sleep" in death until the second coming of Christ.* But those unacquainted with the Scriptural teaching of man’s state in death will be subject to the subtle deceptions of Satan and prone to accept Mary’s apparitions as genuine. Thus many Protestants will be deceived. Of course, Satan has read Scripture, no doubt many times. He is certainly acquainted with Christ’s prophecy and uses it to his own advantage. Those who have not sought God’s truth by personal Bible study will accept the natural catastrophes as the events of which the counterfeit Mary spoke, rather than signs stated to us by our Lord just prior to His crucifixion. It is almost certain that, in desperation, unconverted people will turn to God seeking His protection and praying for Him to halt the catastrophes. Devoid of conversion, such folk are bound to become frenzied in their despair. With no successful result from their prayers they are almost certain to turn upon sabbathkeepers, judging them to be the cause of God’s failure to remove the natural disasters from their midst. The implementation of legislated penalties for breach of Sunday observance would then achieve great support from the majority. It is even possible that the counterfeit Mary will point to sabbathkeepers as the cause of the continued catastrophes. Many will point to the fact that all western nations, the United States excepted, have discarded the death penalty and thus the death decree of Revelation 13:15 cannot be universal. Such should remember that those who outlawed the death penalty can equally reenact it. Also, in some countries such as the United Kingdom, the death penalty has not been revoked for treason. Thus when nations are facing ruin as a result of natural disasters of major dimensions, it is possible that legislators, convinced that sabbathkeepers are the cause of their plight, will charge these faithful souls with treason. The close association of the call to Mass with the Pope’s call to Sunday observance causes us to ponder whether participation in the blasphemous service of the Mass will be demanded. This could well be. Many Protestants would freely concur with such a command in a period of major peril, for their leaders in Lima, Peru, in 1977, at a World Council of Churches Conference entitled Baptism, Eucharist, and Mission (BEM), agreed that all forms of communion were equally acceptable. Yet martyrs yielded their lives rather than participate in what they regarded as the blasphemy of the Mass. Many Protestants are unaware of the claims made by the Roman Catholic Church in respect of the Mass. The Mass is indeed verification of the characteristic of blasphemy cited in Daniel 7:8,25; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 John 2:22; Revelation 13:1,5,6; and Revelation 17:5. Two blasphemous claims stand out. The Papacy claims that in the Mass, the priest becomes the creator of his Creator. Since human beings cannot create life and Christ was never created, this is a preposterous claim.
Further still, the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary is equated to the Mass. This is blasphemy indeed!
True Protestants will never yield to participating in such blasphemy. Rather would they be faithful unto death (Revelation 2:10). But as the Protestants of the United States and other nations become more and more embroiled in the web of ecumenism, they are positioning themselves to be deceived by the artifices of the first beast of Revelation 13, and placing themselves in the role of the second beast. |