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Two Great Classes of Christians, June 29
I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly
wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Revelation 13:3
.
In homage to the Papacy the United States will not be alone. The
influence of Rome in the countries that once acknowledged her dominion,
is still far from being destroyed.
In the last conflict the Sabbath will be the special point of controversy
throughout all Christendom. Secular rulers and religious leaders will unite
to enforce the observance of the Sunday; and as milder measures fail, the
most oppressive laws will be enacted. It will be urged that the few who
stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the land
ought not to be tolerated.... Romanism in the Old World, and apostate
Protestantism in the New, will pursue a similar course toward those who
honor the divine precepts.
The so-called Christian world is to be the theater of great and decisive
actions. Men in authority will enact laws controlling the conscience, after
the example of the Papacy. Babylon will make all nations drink of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication. Every nation will be involved. [
Revelation
18:3-7
quoted.]
The warning of the third angel [of
Revelation 14
] ... is represented in
the prophecy as being proclaimed with a loud voice, by an angel flying in
the midst of heaven; and it will command the attention of the world.
In the issue of the contest all Christendom will be divided into two
great classes—those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of
Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark.
Although church and state will unite their power to compel “all, both small
and great, rich and poor, free and bond” (
Revelation 13:16
), to receive “the
mark of the beast,” yet the people of God will not receive it. The prophet of
Patmos beholds “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 singing the song of Moses
and the Lamb.
Revelation 15:2, 3
.
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