To worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.—“The Church of England claimed all the powers and authority which Papacy claimed. It claimed to be the Church; it acknowledged and repudiated some of the corruptions complained of by the Reformers, such as the [pg 203] sale of indulgence, transubstantiation, etc., and abandoned these as well as the name Roman, for which they substituted the word Holy, calling it the original ‘Holy Catholic Church.’ It claims the same governmental authority and the same veneration for its decrees as Papacy does for hers. And by establishing a similar system, devoid of some of the grosser Papal errors, it attracted the attention of all to those errors, as being the only possible fault of Papacy. And when some of those errors were shortly after discarded by Papacy, the inference was that both Beast systems were right. People at that day, as now, seemed to think those systems proper and right, if their powers, etc., were properly exercised; but from God's standpoint the systems are abominations, and wrong from the very center. These systems are based upon errors, and like a corrupt tree, ‘cannot bring forth good fruit.’
“The principal error was in this—the very basis of those systems—their claim to be the ‘Kingdom of God’ in reigning power. That idea, once admitted, justifies their persecution of individuals and nations, forcing them to submit and bow in obedience. Scripture accords these powers to the ‘Kingdom of God’—when ‘the Kingdom is the Lord's and He is the Governor among the nations; all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of nations shall worship before Thee.’ (Ps. 22:27, 28.) He shall ‘dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel.’ (Ps. 2:9.) Unto Him every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess. (Phil. 2:11.) And if their claim be good, who can object to their carrying out the Scriptural statements? These Antichrists, to make their claim of kingdom power appear true, had simply to take another, viz., to compel obedience, backing up their right to do so by the Scriptures just quoted. And not only was this great evil sanctioned, but their claim, once admitted, that the Kingdom was established and the reign in progress, those who admitted it were hindered from looking for the true Head of the Church to set up the true Kingdom under the whole heavens, which shall break in pieces present imperfect governments, establish righteousness in the earth, and cause every knee to bow and every tongue to confess, to the glory of God.”—Z. '80-1-2.
13:13. And he doeth great wonders.—The strongest text of Scripture forewarning against the impending Church Federation is the strongest text of Scripture forewarning against spiritism. (Isa. 8:9-22.) It is not by accident that these warnings are placed together. “We shall not be at all surprised if some later manifestation of the powers of darkness, transformed to appear as the angels of light [pg 204] and progress, shall be much more specious and delusive than anything yet attempted. We do well to remember the Apostle's words,—‘We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with princely powers of darkness, with the spiritual things of the Evil One.’ (Eph. 6:12.) In 1842, six years before ‘modern Spiritism’ began to operate, Edward Bickersteth, a servant of God and student of His Word, wrote,—‘Looking at the signs of the times, and the long neglect and unnatural denial of all angelic ministration or spiritual influence, and at the express predictions of false Christs, and false prophets, who shall show signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the Very Elect, and that when men receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved, for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they shall believe a lie; I cannot but think there is a painful prospect of a sudden recoil and religious revulsion from the present unbelief and misbelief, to an unnatural and undistinguishing credulity.’ Satan is the inspirer and supporter of every Antichrist; and as he led those who had pleasure in error rather than the truth to the organization of the great Antichrist, Papacy, symbolically the ‘beast’ of Rev. 13, and as he is now operating to produce a Protestant ‘image of the beast’ with life, which will cooperate with the chief Antichrist, so in combination with these will be the powers of darkness, the powers of the air, the lying and seducing spirits, operating in some manner or in a variety of ways,—Spiritism, Christian Science, New Thought, Theosophy, Hypnotism, etc.” (S. 32.) “If we gain the right conception of the matter these deceptions are to affect the whole world, including its wise men, and indeed practically everybody.”—Z. '09-123; Deut. 13:1-3; Matt. 24:24, 25; 2 Thes. 2:9-12; Rev. 16:14.
Note the readiness of Christendom to fall into the trap: “In a sermon in which he told of the effect of religious seances and the efforts of certain writers to shatter belief in a future life, the Rev. H. D. C. Maclachlan preached to a large congregation in Seventh Street Christian Church on ‘The New Spiritualism,’ in which he gave scientific proof of a future life and exhorted his hearers to be of good cheer and continue to hope. Mr. Maclachlan spoke in part as follows: ‘There has been no more remarkable change in public opinion than that witnessed within the last few years with regard to that class of facts known as spiritualistic. There was a time when it was not quite respectable to believe in them, but quite recently there has been a change. Ghosts have become respectable; planchette and table rapping are parlor amusements; the [pg 205] popular magazines vie with each other in saying nice things about mediums and their ways. The cause of this change in public opinion has been a similar change in scientific belief. It is not more than thirty years ago that orthodox science refused so much as to investigate the things of which we are speaking. Some twenty-five years ago the Society for Psychical Research was formed in England with such names as Crookes, Myers, Romanes, Eidgwick, Barrett and others on its list of members, and since that day telepathy, table rapping, clairvoyance, clairaudience, telekinesis, apparitions, materializations, mental healing and all the other phenomena which Professor James, of Harvard, aptly calls residual, have been investigated. Mediums have been transferred from back parlors, where all sorts of trickery was possible, to the physical laboratories of the universities. They have been put under conditions of strictest control. Even the traditional darkness has been denied them. And still the wonderful results came. One after another leading scientists entered into these investigations skeptical and contemptuous, but came out of them believers in the facts on the evidence of their own senses.’ ”—Z. '09-164.
So that he maketh fire come down from heaven.—Fire from heaven was the test by which Elijah proved that Jehovah is the true God, and was the method by which Jehovah accepted the offerings made to Him on the Day of Atonement. (1 Kings 18:38; Lev. 9:24.) In the test at hand the second beast will be able to prove to all except the Elect that his claims to Divine approval are correct. “Our Lord warns us of danger from false Christs ‘then’—that is now. Had it been foretold precisely what form these deceptions would take, this would have somewhat hindered their deceptive power. God permits these deceptions for the very purpose of separating the ‘overcomers’ from all others, and merely guarantees us that the ‘Elect’ will be kept from falling. And yet it is quite possible that some of these trials, siftings and delusions, may come closest upon those possessing the largest degree of the light of Present Truth.” (D. 581; Rev. 7:3.) “The Lord allows the storms to press us more and more so that we will cry unto Him. Then He will hear us and give us the necessary deliverance. These storms may be right inside, in our own person. Whether, therefore, storms financial, political, religious or demoniacal, come his way, the child of God may rest secure and be of good courage. The Lord is both able and willing to care for his interests and bring him off victor.” (Z. '13-150.) As soon as the beast has apparently made out a clear case, perhaps by [pg 206] outward, visible evidences, but surely by evidences from the Scriptures (distorted) of its standing with God, we may expect a very prompt and practical use of the “fire” (Luke 9:54) thus obtained. “The Image, as soon as vitalized, will very promptly use its influence, prestige, power, in every way to punish in the name of the Lord those who in any sense of the word it shall consider to be its opponents. Speedily none will be allowed to buy or sell, in the spiritual marts [or perhaps in any marts], except those who have either the mark or the number of the Beast, or of the Image, either in the right hand of co-operation or in the forehead of public confession. This will mean that the International Bible Students Association and all others not in affiliation with the Alliance will be subjected to radically coercive measures. Truth shall fall in the streets. (Isa. 59:14.) Righteousness will be unable to enter under the stress of the new order of things. For a time it will appear as though a great Christian victory had been won, shared equally by Papacy and Federated-Protestantism—no longer protesting.”—Z. '13-343.
On the earth in the sight of men.—Amongst his own followers and among Christians unattached to either beast.
13:14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth.—The independent Christians just named.
By the means of those miracles.—Signs, the laying on of hands, doctrines of immortality, trinity and claims that none are qualified to understand the Bible aright except those consecrated by the imposition of holy orders by the episcopal succession.—Z. '80-1-2.
Which he had power to do in the sight of the beast.—While the papacy is still alive and active.—Rev. 19:20.
Saying.—By its own example.