There is considerable difficulty in verifying the symbol, but I will submit what up to the present has seemed to me as the most satisfactory explanation. It appears from the description that this was about the last great public effort the dragon made to overwhelm the church and that he was exasperated to this supreme effort by the humiliating defeat he had suffered. The means he employed was water, an object of nature; hence we are to look for some great political event by which the dragon made his master-effort to destroy the woman shortly after her flight into the wilderness. In A.D. 284 Diocletian, a Pagan, succeeded to the imperial throne. Before the close of his reign (305), the Christians suffered the most terrible persecution ever received at the hands of Pagan Rome. It continued ten years—A.D. 302-312. It was the design of this emperor to completely extirpate the very name of Christianity, and his unfortunate victims were slain by the thousands throughout the empire. "But the master-piece of [his] heathen policy was the order to seek and burn all copies of the Word of God. Hitherto the enemy had been lopping off the branches of the tree whose leaves were for the healing of the nations; now the blow was made at the root. It had once been the policy of Antiochus Epiphanes, when he madly sought to destroy the Jewish Scriptures. It was both wise and wicked. It had but one defect, it could not be carried into complete execution. The sacred treasure was in too many hands, and too many of its guardians were brave and prudent, to make extermination possible. An African bishop said, 'Here is my body, take it, burn it; but I will not deliver up the Word of God.' A deacon said, 'Never, sir, never! Had I children I would sooner deliver them to you than the divine word.' He and his wife were burnt together." Butler's Eccl. History, p. 66.
But "the earth helped the woman"—another unlooked-for political event. Worn out with the cares of State, boasting that the very name of Christ was abolished, and dying with a loathsome disease, the tyrant abdicated his throne. A number of individuals claimed imperial honors; but Constantine, the ruler of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, fought his way against contending rivals and finally entered Rome, the capital, in triumph. Enthroned as emperor of the West, he immediately issued an edict of toleration favorable to the Christians (A.D. 313) and soon became a professed Christian himself and by law made Christianity the established religion of the empire. In 324, having crushed all rivals, he became sole emperor of the Roman world, and with a view of promoting Christianity convened what is known as the First General Council of the Church, at Nicaea in Asia Minor, A.D. 325. The prestige of Paganism as a religious power had been overthrown long before by the followers of Christ, but now its political importance received a death-blow, only a few expiring struggles appearing subsequently before the final downfall of Western Rome. Thus, the earth helped the woman and swallowed up the flood of persecution which the dragon cast out.
"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus." Finding that he could not destroy or exterminate the church of God, he determined to make war upon its individual members.
CHAPTER XIII.
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3. And 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.
4. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
6. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
7. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9. If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
In this vision John beheld a beast rise out of the sea. His appearance—like that of a leopard with the feet of a bear and a mouth like a lion—indicated that he was some terrible creature. He was also a persecutor of the saints, the same as the dragon that preceded him. As before explained, this beast, also, symbolizes the Roman empire; for he possesses the same heads and horns as the dragon, the only difference being that the supreme power and authority, as indicated by the crowns, is now vested in the ten horns, or minor kingdoms, instead of in the seven heads. The dragon as a political power represented Rome before her overthrow by the barbarians; the beast as a political power represents new Rome.
A careful study of the characteristics of this beast, however, will show that he represents more than a civil power. As a mere beast from the natural world he could symbolize nothing more than some political power; but it will be noticed that, combined with his beastly nature, there are also certain characteristics that belong exclusively to the department of human life—a mouth speaking great things; power to magnify himself against the God of heaven; the ability to single out the saints of God and kill them, and to set himself up as an object to be worshiped, etc. This combination of symbols from the two departments—those of animal and of human life—points us with absolute certainty to Rome as a politico-religious system. Ask any historian what world-wide power succeeded Rome Pagan, and he will answer at once, "Rome Papal."