Beast of Revelation.pdf - Friends of the Sabbath Australia

The Beast of Revelation
authority of the first beast [the Roman Empire] in his presence.”
And it insists that all give their allegiance and loyalty to the Holy
Roman Empire, the Beast whose deadly wound was healed.
Clearly there can be no mistaking this false church that exercised
“all the authority” of the Roman Empire. What else but the
Church of Rome could be indicated? No other religious institution
insisted on loyalty to the Holy Roman Empire throughout the
medieval period. And what of the two horns? This church has
been, and still is, both an ecclesiastical and a civil government. Its
head is both a religious leader and a civil head of state. But what
about the “great signs” this church performs in the Beast’s presence
(vv. 13–14)? Throughout the centuries, “miraculous” events
have been reported within the false church—although none have
been of the caliber portrayed here. The answer is that, as Bible
prophecy shows, the church-state union of the Middle Ages was
a forerunner of end-time events, which will be similar but on a
much grander scale. At the end time, a final leader of this religious
system will arise called the “false prophet.” It is he who
will perform the “great signs” (19:20).
According to Revelation 13:14, the Beast from the earth—the
great false church—instructs its adherents to make an “image” of
the Beast from the sea, the Roman Empire. What is an image? It’s
a copy, model, representation or counterpart. The “image of the
beast” is therefore a counterpart of the old Roman Empire, something
modeled after the pagan Roman kingdom or government.
Notice the plain statement by British historian and statesman James
Bryce that the “papal [system] itself had been modeled after the
elder Empire” (The Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, p. 53).
Note also the analysis of historian Will Durant: “It became a
triumphant Church by inheriting the organizing patterns and genius
of Rome.... As Judea had given Christianity ethics, and Greece had
given it theology, so now Rome gave it organization.... The
Roman gift was above all a vast framework of government,
which, as secular authority failed, became the structure of
ecclesiastical rule. Soon the bishops, rather than the Roman prefects,
would be the source of order and the seat of power in the
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