“And I saw another beast ascending out of the earth_, and he had Two Horns like to a Lamb, and he spake as being a Dragon” (Apoc. 13:11).
John saw this while standing on “the sand of the sea. ” Would he see the Ten Horn dominions ascending out of the sea, and not see a more remarkable dominion than any of them rising up in the midst of them? He says, “I saw another beast;” so that while he was seeing and standing, he saw two dominions, or systems of government, the one arising from among the peoples inhabiting the countries of the west washed by the Mediterranean, the other from among those of Middle Europe, which he styles “the earth. ”
“The Earth” is an extensive inland portion of the globe, not included in the Roman empire when the Apocalypse was communicated to John in Pat most. In modern times, it is represented by the territory of
t See map pg. 182.
the Austrian, Prusso-German, and Russian empires. Out of a portion of this region John saw the Two-Horned Beast arise; so that when it had arisen and established itself, there were contemporary with it Seven independent Horns, and its own Two Horns in the midst of the original ten.
Between what John saw, and what Daniel beheld while considering the Horns of the Fourth Beast (ch. 7:3,24), there is a remarkable identity. They both saw the rising up of the same dominion, concerning which each of them recorded particulars not specially noticed by the other.
Daniel’s and John’s ten horns represent the same European Powers. Now Daniel says that ‘while he was considering these horns, there came up among them another Little Horn;” which is equivalent to the information derived from John, and while he stood looking at the Tenhorned Beast, he saw “another beast coming up out of the earth.” The most notable diversity here between John and Daniel is, that what Daniel styles a Little Horn, John terms a Beast with Two Horns, and speaking as being a Dragon. This diversity is instructive. A horn represents a Dynasty, or succession of potentates. This appears from the two horns of the Ram in Dan. 8, representing the Dynasty of the Medes, and the Dynasty of the Persians; and for two years, both of them contemporary on the same beast. John’s description of the dominion shows that the Beast of the Earth has Two Contemporary Dynasties, both of which are Dragonic, or Imperial. But Daniel shows the same things, only in a different way. For, that his Little Horn is imperial, a dominion ruled by emperors, he affirms in saying, that the power should subdue three of the ten horns that had existence before it. It was to rule over three conquered kingdoms besides its own: and that it was to be a double-headed imperiality; or, a dominion under two contemporary successions of potentates, he represents by the Little Horn, for one succession of secular emperors; and by the Eyes and Mouth for the other succession of pontifical emperors, styled Popes. This constitution of things makes it “diverse from the ten horns.” There were no independent Eyes and Mouth for each of them. If there had been a pair of Eyes and a Mouth for each horn there would have been a Pope for each kingdom: or ten contemporary popes, as well as ten contemporary kings. But this would have been confusion worse confounded than it was. On the contrary, one pope or Papal Dynasty, was deemed sufficient for the whole ecclesiastical requirements of the worshippers of the Beast, both of the earth and sea. One pope, one emperor, seven independent, and three vassal kingdoms, south and west of the Rhine and Danube, represented by John’s two Beasts, is the politico-ecclesiastical and Apocalyptical
The Temporal Power of the Papacy in Italy. The above map depicts the Papal States on the eve of the establishment of the Holy
Roman Empire in A.D. 800.
mile**
Gibbon records that in 758 Pepin gave to the Pope the “States of the Church” — three kingdoms in Italy: The Exarchate of Ravenna, the Kingdom of the Lombards, and the State of Rome. These were confirmed by Charlemagne, and were represented by the triple crown worn by the Pope (see p. 265). These Papal States remained until 1870 when they were taken over by Garibaldi, and the Papacy was
stripped of its temporal power, the Pope becoming a “prisoner in the Vatican”. It was restored by the Concordat signed with Mussolini in 1929 at which time the Vatican became an independent state, and the Italian Government agreed to compensate the Papacy for the loss of independence in 1870! In the conquests of Charlemagne, by which the Papal power was extended in the West, three of the horns were “plucked up by the roots” — which Eureka identifies with the “horns of the Vandals, Lombards, and the Huns, fulfilling the requirements of Dan. 7:8. Bible prophecy has been remarkably vindicated in world events — Publishers.
constitution of Modern Europe, from A.D. 800 to A.D. 1793. Revolutions have often seriously disturbed this constitutional order. There have been rival contemporary popes and emperors, and more and fewer kings. At present, everything is subjected to this revolutionary disturbance. But, we have in this place more particularly to do with what John saw while he stood on the sand of the sea, viewing the rising up of this new imperial dominion of the west, which Daniel intimates was not only to arise “among the ten horns,” but “after them.”
This is highly important information, and guards us against the error of searching for the Two-Horn Dominion before the appearance of the Ten Gothic kingdoms, or during the time of their appearing. Nor may we search for it while the Seventh Head occupied Rome. That sovereignty had to pass away before an Imperial Eighth could occupy the Seven Hills. This brings us to the time of the settlement of Italy by Justinian’s Pragmatic Sanction§, A.D. 554. But taking our stand upon this settlement, and surveying the western world we can discern nothing answerable to Daniel’s Little Horn with Eyes and Mouth, and John’s Beast of the Earth. We can see Rome reduced in rank among cities, and deprived of all sovereignty: the dominion of Constantinople established in part of Italy; and the Bishop of Rome still devoid of temporal authority, and subject to the Viceroy of the Great Emperor or Dragon, called the Exarch of Ravenna. Two hundred and forty years, however, after this settlement, a great revolution had been developed in the European Body Politic. The Constantinopolitan sovereignty and Exarch were no longer found in Italy; three of the Ten-Horn kingdoms had been subdued by a new power; the Bishop of Rome was exalted into a pontifical potentate with temporal jurisdiction over the so-called Patrimony of St. Peter, or “States of the Church;” and Rome was raised from her degradation and eclipse to imperial sovereignty; and, as Gibbon testifies, was afterwards “revered by the Latins as the Metropolis of the World, and the Throne of the Pope and Emperor who from the Eternal City derived their title, their honors, and the right or exercise of temporal dominion”.
This New Dominion of the Two Dynasties styled “the Pope and Emperor”, is John’s Two-Horned Beast of the Earth; and Daniel’s Little Horn with Eyes like eyes of a man, and a Mouth speaking very great § A pragmatic Sanction is an imperial edict conferring powers or establishing the right of succession. Justinian’s Pragmatic Sanction of 13 Aug. 554 promulgated the code of Laws that he had collated for the government of the realms of his Empire. It gave certain rights to the bishops and notables of the provinces of Italy, even in the appointment of provincial governors. It cancelled out controls that had been established under the Gothic Arian rule of Italy, and considerably strengthened the authority of the Roman Catholic Church in the west. In this way “the dragon” (in Constantinople) “gave power unto the beast” (Rev. 13:3-4), providing it with “a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies” (the Papacy) — Publishers.
things, whose look was more stout than any of the Ten. Its rise must be looked for after the Emperor of the East had lost his sovereignty in Italy. The Constantinopolitan Exarchate of Ravenna was conquered by the Lombards , A.D. 752, which gave the preponderance in Italy to them; and placed the Bishop of Rome very much at their mercy. It was between this date and A.D. 799 that the Two-Horned Beast arose. This interval was the period in which the Bishop of Rome passed from under the sovereignty of the Emperor of the East into an alliance with the New Imperial Dominion of the West, known in history as “the Holy Roman Empire” of Middle Europe.