“And he exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in its presence; and causeth that the earth and the dwellers therein worship the first beast, the plague of whose death was healed” — Verse 12.
The dominion ascending out of the earth and planted in Middle Europe, had that peculiarity in its constitution that would entitle it to be Apocalyptically and symbolically represented by “two horns like to a lamb. ”
“In the twenty-six years,” says Gibbon, “that elapsed between the conquest of Lombardy and his imperial coronation, Rome, which had been delivered by the sword, was subject, as his own, to the sceptre of Charlemagne. The people swore allegiance to his person and family; in his name money was coined, and justice was administered; and the election of the popes was examined and confirmed by his authority.
Nothing, perhaps, can more strikingly illustrate the difference between the Christians we read of in the New Testament, and those who professed to be “orthodox Christians” of the flock of the one Shepherd, styled the Universal Bishop, than the fierce disputes of the eighth and ninth centuries, concerning the worship of images. For these symbols of dead men and women, whose factitious immortalities are supposed to be in a heaven “beyond the realms of time and space,” Apostolic Christians had no respect.
The originating and establishing, which constitute the ascending, rising, or coming up of a dominion, are a work of power, conflict, conquest, and of time. The commencement of such a work is preceded by what is now commonly styled a situation; or concurrence of circumstances and agents, which, when a certain impetus is imparted to them impels them in a certain course to results, neither contemplated nor capable of being controlled.
“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).
In the English Version, the eighth verse reads, “and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the Beast) whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This is generally taken to mean that
“Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints” — Verse 10
“And it was given to him to make war with the Saints, and to vanquish them” — Verse 7
After what I have written concerning The Name in Vol. 1 pp. 98114; 275-383; 368-372 and 395-400,1 need say very little about it in this section.