The Revelation Explained Part 14

"1. The little horn was a blasphemous power: 'He shall speak great words against the Most High.' Dan. 7:25. The leopard beast of Rev. 13:6 does the same: 'He opened his mouth in blasphemy against G.o.d.'

"2. The little horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. Dan. 7:21. This beast also, Rev. 13:7, makes war with the saints, and overcomes them.

"3. The little horn had a mouth speaking great things. Dan. 7:8, 20. And of this beast we read, Rev. 13:5: 'And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.'

"4. The little horn rose on the cessation of the Pagan form of the Roman empire. This beast rises at the same time; for the dragon, Pagan Rome, gives him his power, his seat, and great authority.

"5. Power was given to the little horn to continue for a time, times, and the dividing of time, or twelve hundred and sixty years. Dan. 7:25.

To this beast also power was given for forty and two months, or twelve hundred and sixty years. Rev. 13:5.

"6. At the end of the twelve hundred and sixty years the universal dominion of the little horn was to begin to decline, being consumed and destroyed unto the end. Dan. 7:26. This beast, also, Rev. 13:10, was to be led into captivity and 'killed with the sword.'"

These points prove ident.i.ty. To quote the words of a certain expositor: "When we have in prophecy two symbols ... representing powers that come upon the stage of action at the _same time_, occupy the _same territory_, maintain the _same character_, do the _same work_, exist the _same length of time_, and meet the same _fate_, those symbols represent the same _identical power_." To this all must agree. Hence we have in the vision before us a description of Papal Rome in her two-fold character as a temporal and a religious power. The wounding and healing of the head of the beast will be explained in chapter XVII.

How the same heads and horns can serve both the dragon and the leopard beast will be better understood later. For the present it will be sufficient to state that it is because they are the same beast in reality, being clothed, in its later form, in a Christian garb, instead of the worn-out garments of infidelity or heathenism possessed by the former. This transfer is expressed in the following words: "And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority." Verse 2.

This beast, then, succeeded to the dominion held by the dragon. It was like an old, established firm retiring and giving its standing and credit and well-earned reputation to a new partnership, to conduct a similar business.

While this beast, as before observed, represents the developed religious and political power of the Papacy combined, still the actions ascribed to it show plainly that it is in its character as an _ecclesiastical_ beast that its terrible features are here delineated. No one would suppose that a mere political power would set itself up as an object to be worshiped, exalting itself above the G.o.d of heaven, and then single out and slaughter the saints for not complying therewith. As far as rendering obedience to civil governments is concerned, the Christians of all ages have been the most peaceful and obedient servants of all. So we shall hereafter refer always to the _beast_ as an ecclesiastical power, unless otherwise stated.

This beast all the world admired. "And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" The people worshiped the established hierarchy, and they also worshiped the dragon from which the beast obtained so much of his power. The expression "_worshiped_ the dragon" shows plainly that it is the dragon as a religious system that is referred to, and not the old civil empire. How, then, could the old heathen worship be perpetuated in the church of Rome and form a part of her religious services? By adopting rites and ceremonies purely Pagan in their origin. Since I have already stated that the beast and the dragon as temporal powers were about the same in reality, except the change of sovereignty from the heads to the horns, it will now be necessary to show the remarkable similarity in spirit that existed between them as religious powers, the one being the successor of the other.

1. The high-priest of the Pagan religions was called Pontifex Maximus, and he claimed spiritual and temporal authority over the affairs of men.

The Pope of Rome possesses the same t.i.tle and makes the same claims, and he is clad in the same attire as the Pagan Pontiff.

2. The heathen were accustomed to wear scapulars, medals, and images to shield them from the common ills and dangers of life. Romanists wear the same and for the same purpose.

3. The Pagans, by an official process called _deification_, frequently exalted men who had lived among them to a position worthy of special honor and worship. Papists, by a similar process called _canonisation_, raise their former men of prominence to the dignity of _saints_ and then offer up prayers to them.

The foregoing practises are derived from Paganism; also from Judaism or Paganism came their practise of burning incense in public worship, the use of holy water, burning wax candles in the daytime, and votive gifts and offerings. Other heathen principles are:

4. Adoration of idols and images, a practise expressly forbidden by the Mosaic law and unsanctioned by primitive Christianity;

5. Road G.o.ds and saints (in Catholic countries);

6. Processions of worshipers and self-whippers (especially in Catholic countries);

7. Religious orders of monks and nuns. One who has read of the vestal virgins of old will recognize at once where monkery originated.

In the city of Rome there still stands an old heathen temple built by Marcus Agrippa and dedicated in the year B.C. 27 to _all the G.o.ds_. In the year A.D. 610 it was reconsecrated by Pope Boniface IV. to "the blessed Virgin and all the saints." From that time until the present day Romanists in the same temple have prostrated themselves before _the very same images_ and have devoutly emplored them by the same forms of prayer and for the very same purposes as did the heathen of old. The only difference is, that instead of calling this idol Jupiter, they call it Paul; instead of denominating that one Venus, they call it Mary, etc.

Well has Bowling said: "The scholar, familiar as he is with the cla.s.sic descriptions of ancient mythology, when he directs his attention to the ceremonies of Papal worship, can not avoid recognizing their close resemblance, if not their absolute ident.i.ty. The temples of Jupiter, Diana, Venus or Apollo, their 'altars smoking with incense,' their boys in sacred habits, holding the incense box, and attending upon the priests, their holy water at the entrance of the temples, with their _aspergilla_, or sprinkling-brushes, their thuribula, or vessels of incense, their ever-burning lamps before the statues of their deities, are irresistibly brought before his mind, whenever he visits a Roman Catholic place of worship, and witnesses precisely the same things."

History of Romanism, pp. 109, 110.

Having failed in his direct attacks against the Christian church, with the accession of Constantine, who established Christianity as the State religion, the dragon soon clothed his pernicious principles in a Christian garb and made war against the remnant of the woman's seed that kept the commandments of G.o.d, through the rising hierarchy, under the name of Christianity; but his heads and horns being visible, and he being unable to control his tongue, his real sentiments crop out, and he is easily identified. It is not to be supposed, however, that the beast would appear suddenly in full possession of the immense power ascribed to him in this chapter. On the contrary, Daniel represents it as a _little_ horn at first, whose look finally became "more stout than his fellows." Dan. 7:8, 20. Such ecclesiastical power was attained only by the process of gradual development. According to the vision his universal power was limited to "forty and two months," or twelve hundred and sixty years. Since this has reference to the beast as an ecclesiastal power, which according to Daniel grew up by degrees, the time should be calculated the same as in chapter 11:2, 3--dated from the time when the external, visible church was wholly in the hands of the profane mult.i.tude of Gentiles and the true church crowded into the wilderness. The nationalized hierarchy, however, continued to advance to greater degrees of power over the nations, until it reached its zenith under the pontificate of Gregory VII., A.D. 1073-1080.

The great things and blasphemies spoken by this beast are doubtless fulfilled by the prerogatives and rights belonging to G.o.d alone which this apostate church, especially through her regularly const.i.tuted head, claims. In fact, the Pope is the real mouth of this beast, the one who dictates her laws with great authority. He claims to be the vicar of Christ on earth and supreme head of the church, even, as in the case of Pope Innocent, denominating himself the one before whom every knee must bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth. He claims power over the souls of all men on earth and even after their departure from earth. If this is not blasphemy against G.o.d, his tabernacle, or church, and "them that dwell in heaven," then I am wholly unable to imagine what would fulfil the prediction. Among the blasphemous t.i.tles a.s.sumed are these: Lord G.o.d the Pope, King of the World, Holy Father, King of kings, and Lord of lords, Vicegerent of the Son of G.o.d. He claims infallibility (which was backed up by the Ec.u.menical council of 1870) and has for ages. Further, he claims power to dispense with G.o.d's laws, to forgive sins, to release from purgatory, to d.a.m.n, and to save.

All the inhabitants of the earth were to worship him, except those whose names were in the book of life. Thank G.o.d 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 a.s.sumptions were made the object of fearful persecutions, until Rome glutted herself upon the blood of millions of G.o.d'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 G.o.d 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 f.a.gots 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 Inst.i.torus, 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 superst.i.tions? 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d's command, to bear him testimony, and to a.s.sure me that he did not come with any fraudulent design, but that all he should do was conformable to the will of G.o.d. 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 G.o.d 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 superst.i.tion 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 n.o.ble of G.o.d'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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.s 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 G.o.d. So long as the Word and Spirit of G.o.d were allowed their proper place as the Governors of G.o.d'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 G.o.d 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,