Ver. 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.”
Here appears upon the scene another beast. A human ecclesiasticism, a manism. Protestant authors who brand the first beast as the Roman hierarchy are confounded at the appearance of this second beast. By these two beasts we understand the apostasy to be [pg 429] under two forms. We have no hesitancy in branding this second beast as Protestantism. In the church of God all is controlled exclusively by the Holy Spirit. There is no manism in the church of God, therefore it is not animal or beastly. All sectism is controlled largely by man, therefore is a beast power. At first Protestantism had a mild, gentle, lamb-like appearance compared with Catholicism.
The two horns are two state powers that gave support to the beast. Germany and England supported Protestantism, therefore are the two horns. The dragon spoken of in this eleventh verse is, like in the second verse and also in chapter 12:3, a state power.
This second beast “exercised all the power of the first beast before him.” See ver. 12. Was this not true in England, where the king was head of both church and state? Consequently we see that the second beast or man religion spoken of was authorized by a dragon or state power. In verse thirteen it is said he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth. Throughout the reign of Protestantism there has been frequent spiritual revivals and reformations. God really sent the Holy Spirit fire upon the honest efforts of men, and wonders were accomplished betimes in the name of Jesus.
In the fourteenth verse it is said that he deceived them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he did. Each reformation in the past [pg 430] three centuries was begun by holy men, upon whom God sent the holy fire; but others rising up subsequently, who were devoid of spirituality, built upon their foundation, and now deceive the people in making them believe that they and their sect institutions are of God because God manifested himself to their predecessors. In this verse we also learn that an image was made unto the first beast. Upon the work of each reformer a sect institution was organized, which was fashioned after the Roman Catholic sect the mother of all sects.
According to the words of the fifteenth verse these images will in some future day, which the Lord knows, find a consummation in one great image, unto which all bow and pay homage or else suffer martyrdom. To receive the mark of the beast as spoken of in verse sixteen is to receive the ceremonies and customs and doctrines peculiar to each respective sect. Any one acquainted with the customs and doctrines of the different denominations can to-day determine to what denomination a stranger belongs by his dress or manner of speech. The number six hundred sixty-six refers to the number of leading religious denominations.
We will now, briefly as possible, consider the first eight verses of the seventeenth chapter of Revelation. In verse one John speaks of seeing a great whore sitting upon many waters. In verse two he speaks of the kings of the earth becoming drunk on the wine of [pg 431] her fornication. This has all been true in the papacy. There is in this hierarchy an enchanting, delusive spirit that has intoxicated her subjects. This is the real secret of her power.
In Rev. 17:5 the apostasy is termed “Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.” Here we see again the apostasy in two forms or generations. The mother is the first, and is identical with the first beast of Rev. 13:1. The harlot daughters are the second, and are identical with the second beast of Rev. 13:11. We consider it needful to enquire what is meant by the term
Babylon.
There is the natural world and the spiritual world. Babylon has existed under both. There are many references made to it in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament we find the origin and final doom of literal Babylon. In the Apocalypse we find the origin and final doom of spiritual Babylon, the antitype. In the days of Noah the world became very wicked and God destroyed all save Noah and his family. For a time after the flood the people were righteous and the whole earth was one language and one speech. Gen. 11:1. God's people in those days all spoke the same language and understood each other, because they understood truth as it was.