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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
2. “The sea” out of which this beast arose is the same as “the
waters” of
Revelation 17:15
, explained to be “peoples, and multi-
tudes, and nations, and tongues.” The papacy was upheld by many
nations.
3. This beast has the characteristics of the four beasts of Dan 7,
which represent the four empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and
Rome. It is the inheritor of the power held by these four empires
successively.
4. The beast with two horns,
Revelation 13:11-17
, is in a differ-
ent locality, “Coming up out of the earth;” not by the conquest of
nations and peoples, but growing as a plant, out of the earth. This
represents the united states, a locality outside of the dominion of
“All the world,” as known to the ancients.
5. This beast has two horns, the civil and the ecclesiastical. That
a church is represented by a horn is proved in
Daniel 7
, the “little
horn” representing the Roman Church, even before it was possessed
of civil power. So also in
Revelation 13
. The dragon (pagan Rome)
gave the beast (the church) his power (civil power), and seat (city of
Rome), and great authority.
6. The two-horned beast appears in two phases,—with the gen-
tleness of a lamb and the fierceness of the dragon. This has, to some
extent, already been shown, in the inconsistency of sending forth to
the world the doctrine of the equality of all men in respect to natural
rights,—the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,—and
upholding by law all the evils of American slavery. Also, by pro-
fessing to grant the privilege to all to worship God according to the
dictates of their own consciences, and then persecuting the Baptists
and Quakers for following their conscientious convictions. But this
will be shown more fully in the future, when Congress shall be
called upon to make laws concerning religion.
7. The identity of the “two-horned beast” is further shown by its
wonder working; by its deceiving “them that dwell on the earth by
those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast.”
[503]
Revelation 13:14
. Spiritualism arose in the United States, and has
gone to all the world by means of American mediums.
8. This beast causes
both
“the earth and them which dwell
therein to worship the first beast.” This can be easily referred to laws
compelling the observance of the Sunday instead of the Sabbath