“And I saw out of the Mouth of the Dragon, and out of the Mouth of the Beast, and out of the Mouth of the False Prophet, three unclean spirits like to Frogs (for they are spirits of Demons working wonders) go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole habitable, to gather them together for the war of that great day of the Deity who is almighty”.
A mouth is Apocalyptically a symbol of government, through which the political organization of which it is the executive, gives expression to its policy. In this remarkable text, three such mouths are indicated, as first, the Mouth of the Dragon Polity; second, the Mouth of the Beast Polity; and third, the Mouth of the False Prophet Polity. The Mouth of the Dragon is termed in ch. 12:15, the mouth of the Serpent; and in v. 16, the mouth of the Dragon: one and the same mouth, because the Serpent and Dragon indicate the same polity—sin imperially manifested in the flesh: the symbolical Devil and Satan; and enthroned in Constantinople.
The Mouth of the Beast is identical with the mouth of the Beast of § The final volume of Eureka was published in 1868 just prior to the termination of the temporal power of the Papacy in 1870. This later was brought about by the revolutionary policy of Garibaldi in Italy, as a result of which, the Papacy was stripped of all political power, the Papal States were abolished, and the Pope reduced to “a prisoner of the Vatican” as he styled himself. This partly fulfilled the prophetic requirements of Rev. 17:16. However, the temporal power was restored by Mussolini in the Lateran Treaty of 1929 which proclaimed the Pope once more as the "temporal ruler of Vatican City” which then became an independent sovereign state. Since then the temporal power of the Papacy has been greatly enhanced until today the Pope exercises considerable influence throughout the world both politically and ecclesiastically. Tliis is in accordance with the requirements of The Apocalypse as expounded in Eureka, for at the epoch of the destruction of the Papacy at the hands of Christ and the saints, it is described as triumphantly riding the beast to which the ten horns have surrendered their power (Rev. 17:3,12,17). Current events are in accordance with this prophecy — The Publishers.
the Earth, which speaks as a dragon (ch. 13:11); and which appears in ch. 17, as the imperial scarlet-colored supporter of the Mother of Harlots, having an Eighth Head. This mouth has been for a long time enthroned in Vienna; but in the days of Charlemagne, who founded the dominion, the seat of its secular dominion was Aix-le-Chapelle at present included in Prussian territory.
The Mouth ofthe False Prophet is identical with the Lion Mouth of Ch. 13:2,5,6. This is the Mouth which speaks “great things and blasphemies”. It is the Mouth also of the Image (ch. 13:15) the Two-Horned Ecclesiastical element of the European Polity, headed up in the Papal Dynasty, and enthroned in Rome.
Out of these three several political centres, three unclean spirits go forth whose resemblance is like to Frogs. There were not three unclean spirits out of each mouth; but only one out of each, making three in all. The unclean spirits are “spirits of Daemons”. Of the number of the daemons, no hint is given whether they are many or few. Half a dozen or more daemons operating upon the Dragon, Beast, and False Prophet, only excite the outflow of an unclean spirit from each, which is characterized by a symbol, representative of the power whose wonder-working daemon causes the mouth to speak. The Spirit of the Dragon, the Spirit of the Beast, and the Spirit of the False Prophet are “unclean”, or unholy; and in their operation after the advent, directed against that which is holy and true, even against “the Deity who is Almighty”. They are the spirits which cause the Beast and the kings of the Earth and their armies to gather together to make war against him that then sits on the white horse, and against his army (ch. 19:11,19; 17:14). The spirits themselves are sanguinary and warlike policies, through which the governments indicated breathe out threatenings and slaughters against their adversaries. These policies are generated in the minds of cabinets by the diplomatic influences therein developed. The influence that gains the ascendant affirms the policy that rules, and becomes the spirit of the executive or mouth. When it speaks it proclaims war, and puts in operation all the machinery necessary to carry it into effect.
In the English Version these spirits are termed “the spirits of devils”. This is inaccurate, and arises from the translators erroneously supposing that daemons and “devils” were the same things. The phrase is pneumata daimonon, spirits of daemons. These Apocalyptic entities are political daemons; that have to do with politics, civil and ecclesiastical. It is true, they may be diaboloi, devils, as Judas was (John 6:70) but all devils are not daemons. The daemons of this prophecy are official personages engaged in doing or working out, signs, wonders, or remarkable events, poiounta semeia; all tending, in their combined operation, to the development of the situation termed “the war of that great day of the Deity who is Almighty”.
The Greeks, in their system of superstition, made a distinction between theoi, gods and daimones, daemons. Over all there was Zeus, their king and father. The daemons were gods of an inferior order, yet an aerial race, occupying the third rank in their heavens. They were regarded as possessing wonderful intelligence; and in consequence of their middle position in the air, acting as interpreters and mediators between the superior gods and men. “The whole daemonial race”, says Socrates, “is between God and mortals, acting as interpreters or messengers to both. Through this race passes all divination, and the art of the priests; for God mingles not directly with the human race, but through these daemons is ever carried on the intercourse between the gods and men, both when awake and when asleep”. Plato says, that in the reign of Saturn the daemons were the political governors of mankind, ruling men as man rules the inferior animals. “Saturn knowing,” said he “how that human nature, in the absolute self-control of human affairs, can never avoid being filled with violence and unrighteousness, appointed as rulers and magistrates to our cities, not men, but beings of a divine and nobler race, namely, the Daemons. We do not constitute oxen as rulers over oxen, nor goats over goats, but we ourselves retain the dominion; the same thing did the Deity, because he was a lover of men. He appointed over us a better race than ourselves, namely, the Daemons”.
This exhibition of daemons excludes all idea of their being devils. But this teaching of Socrates and Plato, styled by Paul “the wisdom of the world”, is made foolish by the Gospel; nevertheless, its fiction was convenient for symbolical representation of political analogies. Thus, the governments of the world and their high agents and officials, are a system of power, ordered, or arranged, by the Deity. They occupy a position in “the Air” (ch. 16:17), or political firmament, intermediate between Him and mankind in general. They are therefore Daemons, a superior order of agents to the common herd; though often intellectually and morally inferior to many among the humblest of mankind. In unfigurative language, kings, cabinets, councils, conferences, ambassadors, ministers of state, and such like, are the Daemons of the prophecy in hand. They are not to be confounded with ta daimonia, the dcemonia of ch. 9:20. The fictitious ghosts of the Virgin-goddess, and of all the other saint-gods and saint-goddesses of the Romish superstition, are the daemonials, answering to the daemons of the pagan Greeks; but the daemons of ch. 16:14, are real official men, such as the Sultan, the Austrian and French emperors, the pope, and their political representatives.