The Holy Scripture - english version B.indd - Sabbat

John's Foreview of Romanism.353The Apocalypse contains a marvelous foreview of the rise, reign, decline, andfall of the Roman Papacy, of the sufferings and triumphs of the saints of Godduring its continuance, and their enthronement at its close.The Roman empire is presented to Daniel and to John under one and thesame striking and special symbol, a ten-horned wild beast. Danielsah the Medo-Persian empire as a two-horned ram, one horn being higher thanthe other (Daniel viii., 3). He saw the Grecian empire as a four-horned goat(Daniel viii,8-22); and he saw the Roman empires as a ten-horned wild beast.Thus these three great empires as seen by Daniel were two-horned, four-horned,ten-horned. This is remarkable and easy to be remembered. Now Daniel's tenhornedbeast reappears in the Apocalypse. Here we have an important linkbetween the Old Testament and the New, and a clue to the meaning of the last bookof Scripture. Let us try to be clear on this point. The four wild beasts representBabylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. The fourth is ten-horned. This ten-horned beastof Daniel reappears in the Apocalypse, the divinely given symbol of the fourthand final earthly empire. You see it in chapters xii., xiii., and xvii. of the book ofRevelation. Compare now the passages.First, Daniel vii., 7 : " I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast,dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly ; and it had ten horns." Next,Revelation xii., 3: " A great red dragon, having ten horns." Revelation xiii., 1 :" I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having ten horns." Lastly, Revelation xvii., 3:" A scarlet colored beast, having ten horns."It is universally admitted that this fourth, or ten-horned beast,represents the Roman empire. The angel himself so interprets it. I want youparticularly to notice the fact that we are not left to speculate about the meaningof these symbols ; that the all-wise Gid who selected them, and gave them to us,has condescended to give us their interpretation. All these principal visions aredivinely interpreted.First, as to the vision of the fourfold image there is an inspired interpretationof a most detailed character. You remember the words with which it begins," This is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king."Then in the vision of the four wild beasts there is the interpretation beginningthus, " So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things."So with the vision of the second and third empires in Daniel viii., there is theinterpretation. Daniel says : " I heard a man's voice ... which called, and said,Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision," and so forth.The same method is followed in the Apocalypse. The opening vision ofthe seven candlesticks is interpreted. You remember the words, " The sevencandlesticks [lampstands] which you saw are the seven Churches [Revelation 1,20;Bethel Edition: the seven assemblies]." And similarly, the vision of the womanseated on the seven-headed, ten-horned beast, in chapter xvii., is interpreted:every part of it is interpreted. Observe the angel's words: " I will tell you themystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the sevenheads and ten horns." Mark in your Bibles, if you will, these four sentences inthe angelic interpretation :"The beast which you saw."