The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

epublic, lasting until about 27 BC; and the imperial, beginning with Octavius or Augustus
Caesar. While it is true that there were several forms by which the republic was ruled,
sometimes by Consuls, sometimes by Tribunes, sometimes by Decemvirs, and sometimes
by a Triumvirate, it was all the time a republic, these officers being elected by the people.
This will be seen by a reference to any historian. It would seem, therefore, that the proper place to begin to count the
seven heads would be when the last head of the third beast empire was overthrown. That
head was Egypt. The year that this event occurred is understood by all historians to be 31
BC. The form of government existing at this time was the republic.
4. If we were to understand the Papacy to be an eighth head or form of government, and
(as is understood by nearly all expositors) these heads should all be found in Rome, the
seven-hilled city, then, as it is a fact that Papacy lost all control or authority in the Roman
city in 1870, the present Victor Immanuel dynasty would be a ninth head. The unveiling of
prophecy by the events of history thus seems to have proved the incorrectness of the
interpretation that Papacy is represented by an eighth head. The term eighth in Rev. 17,
seems rather to refer to the eighth or last form the beast may assume; this form would be
the beast without a head or government, in other words, anarchy. With the statement that
the head that received the deadly wound and was healed represented Papacy, we leave
the further consideration of the matter until we take up in order the revealing angel's
explanation to St. John, found in chapter seventeen.
Before proceeding to the consideration of the other features of the vision which relate
especially to Papacy's character and doings, we note, as having a very important bearing
on a correct interpretation of this vision of the beast, and its further description in Rev. 17,
that it will be quite necessary to locate these ten horns, that is, to locate where on the
beast's heads, St. John saw them. It will be evident to the thoughtful student that they
could not be upon those heads (forms of government of the Roman Empire) that in their
fulfillment were in the past, or had passed into history before the division of the empire in
AD 476, whether we begin to reckon from 753 BC, or 31 BC, for we are told that "the ten
horns are ten kings," representing the division of the empire into ten. The very suggestion
of this matter, keeping in mind the period in history when the kingdoms symbolized by
the ten horns began to rule, leads us to conclude that they all must be found on the Papal
head, whichever one represented Papacy, because these ten kingdoms constitute Papacy's
supporters throughout a large part of the whole career, and they do not begin to turn
against her until the sixteenth century, as, we have seen, and as is recorded in the vision:
"And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the harlot [Papal
Church] and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with
fire."--Rev. 17:16.
"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."--Ver. 2.
It will be observed by the careful student that the three beasts referred to here in the
description of this one wild beast, were the same used in the prophecy of Daniel 7;