Taken in connection with other portions of the book of Revelation, this prophecy reveals clearly what the agency that works the miracles is. The dragon, representing pagani** (Rev. 12: 3, 4); the beast, representing the papacy (Rev. 13: 1-10); and the lamblike symbol, representing Protestantism, Page 138 or more specifically, Protestant America (Rev. 13: 11-17), constitute the symbols of this prophecy. For convenience, let us designate them as A, B, and C , respectively. C works his miracles in sight of B; B and C are again brought to view in Rev. 19: 20, and there C is called "the false prophet." We know the false prophet here is the same as C, because he works miracles before B, the same as C does in chapter 13: 14. All together, A, B, and C are brought to view in Rev. 16: 13, and unclean spirits like frogs are said to come out of their mouths; and then verse 14 tells what they are: "For they are spirits of devils, working miracles." This, then, not the spirits of dead men, is the agency that works the miracles of chapter 13:13, 14. We follow the subject so far, at this point, merely to identify the agency that works the miracles, and shall have more to say upon it.
But before passing, we would remind the reader that here also the subject is connected with the second coming of Christ; for the prophecy of Revelation 13 ends with the redemption of the church which immediately follows. Rev.
14: 1-5.
6. 2 Thess. 2: 9-12: "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Page 139 Here, again, we have the great fact brought out with still more startling emphasis, that there is to be a great outbreaking of Satanic power among men, just before and up to, the coming of Christ. And if we already see the preliminary and even far-advanced working of this power in Spiritualism, the world should stand aghast at the perils of the times in which we live.
The coming of Christ is brought to view in verse 8, and verse 9 states that at that time Satan will be working with all power. The common version is calculated to obscure this passage. The words "even him" (verse 9) are wrongly and unnecessarily supplied. Literally rendered, the last clause of verse 8, and the first of verse 9 would read as follows: "Whom the Lord . . . shall destroy with the brightness of his [Christ's] coming; of whom [Christ] the coming is, after [or at the time of] the working of Satan,"etc. The word "after" is from, the Greek [ GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTEDTEXT ] (kata), which when referring to time, as in this case, does not mean "after or according to," but "within the range of, during, in the course of, at, about," as in 2 Tim. 4: 1, where it is rendered "at."So here is a plain declaration that at the very time when Christ comes Satan will be working in the bight of his power, by signs and lying wonders (wonders to prove a lie) to keep the people under falsehood and deception.
Verses 10-12 tell who his victims are, and why they become such: they are those who preferred the pleasures of sin to the practice of righteousness, and so would not receive the truth, Page 140 nor the love of it. In all such cases God's throne is clear. He always, as in this case, sets truth first before the people, gives them a chance, and calls upon them to embrace it, and be saved. But when men, as free moral agents, whom God will not force into his kingdom, refuse to receive the truth, shut their eyes, close their ears, and steel their hearts against it, and find their pleasure in unrighteousness, in going in just the opposite direction; -- what can God do for them? We leave the skeptic himself to answer. For more years than Spiritualism, in its present phase, has been before the world, several religious bodies have made a specialty of the great Bible truth concerning the state of the dead, and life only in Christ, which effectually shields all those who receive it against the rapping delusion.
7. Rev. 18: 2: "And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, amid the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."Among the many predictions given in the word of God touching the last days, is one which fore-tokens a wide-spread and lamentable declension in the religious world. The phrase which embodies it, is the one just quoted, "Babylon is fallen." The term "Babylon" is not intended nor used as a term of reproach, but rather as a descriptive word setting forth the very undesirable condition of "mixture" and "confusion" in the religious world. It is certainly not the Lord's will, who prayed that all his Page 141 people should be one, that scores or hundreds of divisions and sects should exist within his church. That is owing, exclaims the Catholic, to the Protestant rule of private judgment. It is not. It is owing to that Pandora's box of mystical interpretation placed in the church by old Origen, that prince of mischief-makers. By this method, which has no method and no standard, the interpretations of God's word will ever be as various and numerous as the whims and fancies that may find a place in the minds of men.
But all this confusion must be remedied in that church which will be ready for the second advent; for no people will be prepared for translation but such as worship the Lord in both spirit and truth. To bring the church to this point, a call has been sent to Christendom in the special truths for this time. Most turn away, but some are taking the stand to which these circumstances summon them. The process is ******.
