A Powerful Statement
"Through paganism, and then
through the Papacy, Satan exerted his power for many centuries in an effort
to blot from the earth God's faithful witnesses. Pagans and papists were
actuated by the same dragon spirit. They differed only in that the Papacy,
making a pretense of serving God, was the more
dangerous and cruel foe. Through the agency of Romanism, Satan took the world
captive. The professed church of God was swept into the ranks of this delusion,
and for more than a thousand years the people of God suffered under the
dragon's ire. And when the Papacy, robbed of its strength, was forced to desist
from persecution, John beheld a new power coming up to echo the dragon's
voice, and carry forward the same cruel and blasphemous work. This power,
the last that is to wage war against the church and the law of
God, was symbolized by a beast with lamblike horns. The beasts
preceding it had risen from the sea, but this came up out of the earth,
representing the peaceful rise of the nation which is symbolized. The 'two
horns like a lamb' well represent the character of the United States
Government, as expressed in its two fundamental principles, Republicanism
and Protestantism. These principles are the secret of our power and
prosperity as a nation. Those who first found an asylum on the shores of American
rejoiced that they had reached a country free from the arrogant claims of
popery and the tyranny of kingly rule. They determined to establish a
government upon the broad foundation of civil and religious liberty."
E.G. White, Signs of the Times, 11-01-99,
PR 4
|