Luke 21:8

Christian, Be Not Deceived!

CHAPTER TWENTY 

"THE TEN KINGS ... GIVE THEIR POWER AND STRENGTH UNTO THE BEAST"-DOES THIS INDICATE THAT THEY DO NOT GIVE THEIR POWER UNTO THE WOMAN WHO RIDES AND GUIDES THE BEAST? WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS WORDING? 

The fact that the angel states concerning the kings that "these have one mind, and shall give their strength unto the beast” (Rev. 17:12, 13) has led some to conclude that there is a great difference between them giving their strength unto the beast and their giving it unto the woman. But surely such fail to see that the beast is under the control and guidance of the woman. What else is to be understood by the prophetic symbolism of the woman sitting upon the beast upon whose 7th head are the ten horns representing the kings? The whole picture presents the tremendous power of the woman–she guides, controls, and dictates to the beast, and especially is this so regarding the 7th head and its ten horns. The kings' gift of "power and strength unto the beast" is not intended to convey anything else than that not only does the beast do the bidding of the woman but that she also influences the kings to assist the beast in accomplishing her desires. The whole of this prophecy supports the view that these kings give their power and strength unto the beast in accomplishing the will of the wily, wicked woman. This is the explicit declaration of this chapter. Verse 18 read: 'And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth." Thus it is because this woman “reigneth over these kings of the earth" that they do her bidding and "give their power. and strength unto the beast". The same fact is abundantly clear in the two verses which explain why the kings give their power and strength unto the beast: "These have(one mind)and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb. and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful" (vs. 13, 14). That is, they give their power and strength unto the beast in making war against Christ and His people. As stated by the Spirit of Prophecy: “Under one head–the Papal power–the people will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses" 7T. 182). Is this not the same conflict foretold in Rev. 12:17: "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the 

172 testimony of Jesus". Commenting upon this verse, the Lord's Servant says: 

"The dignitaries of church and State will unite to . . . compel all classes to honour the Sunday ... oppressive enactments, . . . Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet's words : 'The dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed"' (GC. 592). "The church appeals [the woman on the beast guides and controls] to the strong arm of civil power, and in this work, Papists and Protestants unite." (GC. 445). "When the churches of the United States ... shall influence the State to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy . . . when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas" (GC. 445). 

"Satanic agencies have been moved from beneath, and they have inspired men to unite in a confederacy of evil, that they may perplex, harass, and cause the people of God great distress. The whole world is to be stirred with enmity against Seventh-day Adventists because they will not yield homage to the papacy, by honouring Sunday, the institution of this anti-Christian power. It is the purpose of Satan to cause them to be blotted from the earth, in order that his supremacy of the world may not be disputed... . "Kings and rulers and governors have placed upon themselves the brand of anti-christ, and are represented  as the dragon who goes to make war with the saints" (TM. 37, 39.) 

Thus the servant of the Lord makes it clear that it is the church, the woman, who rides and guides the beast of persecution. Again the Lord's servant says:  

"The fallen denominational churches are Babylon. Babylon has been fostering poisonous doctrines, the wine of error. . . These and kindred errors are presented to the world by the various churches, and thus the Scriptures are fulfilled that say, 'For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.' It is a wrath which is created by false doctrines, and when kings and presidents drink this wine of the wrath of her fornication, they are stirred with anger against those who will not come into harmony with the false and satanic heresies which exalt the false Sabbath, and lead men to trample underfoot God's memorial.... But Omnipotence will interpose, and to the apostate churches that unite in the exaltation of Satan, the sentence will go forth, 'Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her"' (TM. 61, 62). 

It will be observed that the Lord's servant places the blame for the persecution of God's people in the last day by the kings of earth to the teaching of Papal errors by apostate Protestant churches. The churches ride and guide the States to engage in war against the Lamb "in the person of His witnesses". The kings give their power and strengths unto the beast of persecution because the woman has given them the wine of false teachings: "For all nations have drunk of the wine of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her" –see Rev. 17:2; 18:3, 9; 19:2. This is one of the outstanding facts of this prophecy: "the great whore . . . with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication" (Rev. 17:2) "And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her" (Rev. 8:3); "And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her" (v. 9); "the great whore 

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which did corrupt the earth with her fornication" (Rev. 19:2). Of the kings who give their power and strength unto the beast, it is repeatedly declared that they thus associate with the beast of persecution in order to please the whore with whom they have illicit association. They give their power and strength unto the beast because of the wine given them by the woman. Thus to suggest that when the kings give their power and strength unto the beast they do not do so to the woman is surely to fail to grasp the essence of this important feature of this prophecy. 

It will be observed that in the extract given above (TM. 62), the Lord's servant, after showing how the churches will influence the kings to enforce church dogmas which will result in the persecution of God's people, then shows how the Lord will intervene to overthrow the Babylonian whore–"the Lamb shall overcome them" (Rev. 17:14)–and quotes the prophecy, "And she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord Who judgeth her". Thus the burning of Babylon, which is depicted in Rev. 17:16 as the burning of the whore and in Rev. 18:8-18 as a city, and again in Rev. 19:2, 3 as the burning of the whore, follows the Lord's intervention on behalf of His people at the time of the opening of the 7th plague. Until then the beast and the ten kings do the bidding of the Babylonian whore–the kings give their power and strength unto the beast to persecute the saints at the behest of the woman; this is the teaching as outlined in the extracts given above from the pen of the servant of the Lord: "Kings, and rulers, and governors have placed upon themselves the brand of antichrist, and are represented as the dragon who goes to make war with the saints" (TM. 39)-at whose bidding do they do this? As the Lord's servant has shown the persecution 's brought, about b the churches constituting "Babylon", "the various churches", given the kings and nations "'the wine of the wrath of her fornication . It is a wrath which is created by false doctrines, and when kings and residents drink this wine Io the wrath of her fornication, they are stirred with anger against those who will not come into harmony with the false and satanic heresies which exalt the false sabbath" (TM. 62 Thus the Lord's servant teaches that the kings do give their power and strength unto the woman when they assist the beast in persecuting God's people. 

Had the prophecy stated that the kings would give their power and strength unto the woman it could have been misunderstood to mean that in some way there was variance between the beast and the kings, but the forcefulness of the wording is given thus to convey the unity that exists between the beast and the kings in executing the will of the wicked woman. We have shown elsewhere in this book that this picture of unity between the forces of 

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Babylon is maintained until the opening of the 7th plague when, through the intervention of God on behalf of His people, in the language of the Revelator, "the great city is divided into three parts" (Rev. 16:19). The unity between Roman Catholics, Protestants, and State authorities is brought about by false teachings, particularly those relating to Sunday sacredness and the union of Church  and State in order to enforce church dogmas through the civil power. The union of Church and State is one of the main features of this prophecy. The Babylonian whore became such when she had illicit association with State powers, and the expression "Mother of harlots" points to the fact that her daughters – the churches which have come out of Rome following the Reformation–became harlots also by having illicit association with the States. Thus the prophecy focuses upon the very last days when the true church will be brought into a position of peril through Roman Catholic and Protestant churches guiding the States to enforce Sunday laws. Thus the beast–the civil power of those nations which already are largely Roman Catholic–will be assisted by all other kings even protestant countries, to do the bidding of Papal and Protestant churches. 

We scarcely need to point out that it is futile to look for exactly ten kings who will thus serve the interests of Babylon. The number ten is employed in Scripture in a comprehensive way: The Ten Commandments comprehend all the moral laws ("If there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself"; this, Paul declared after having quoted 5 of the 6 Commandments pertaining to man's duty to his fellowmen. Rom. 13:9). Jesus is said to be "the chiefest among ten thousand" (Solomon's Song 5:10), surely meaning the chiefest of all. The tenth or the tithe indicates that God is the owner of all we possess. Then when we compare passages in the Apocalypse we discern that it is the same conflict that is described from Rev. 12 to Rev. 20 and in that conflict it is "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" (Rev. 16:14); "the kings of the earth" (Rev. 1:5; 6:15; 9:19) who are involved, not just ten. It is these same "kings of the earth" who commit fornication with the whore–see Rev. 17:2; 18:3, 9. Thus there can be no question that when the kings give their power and strength unto the beast they do so at the behest of the Babylonian whore. And why do they give their power to the beast? The very next verse makes it clear by saying, “These shall make war with the Lamb" "in the person of His witnesses".  Babylon's whore is spiteful against the Lamb's bride, His church, the woman of Rev. 12, and she employs all the powers of earth against the remnant church–she guides the beast to do this deadly work and the ten horns, the kings of the earth, give their power 

175 and strength unto the beast for this purpose. 

Having thus made "war with the Lamb"–the beast is set forth in opposition to the Lamb, as the Babylonian woman is set forth in opposition to the true church depicted as a pure woman in Rev. 12–the Lamb makes war against the forces of Babylon (Rev. 17:14) and the first thing He does is to break up the unity of the trinity of evil. This He accomplishes when He utters His voice and thus brings deliverance to His people and consternation to their enemies (Rev. 16:17, 18). The drying up of the waters of the Euphrates which is mentioned in Rev. 16:12 is also intimated in Rev. 17:1, 15. It will be observed that Rev. 17:14 brings us to the time when the kings associate with the beast who does the bidding of the evil woman, and thus this evil trinity makes war against the Lamb, "and the Lamb shall overcome them". This He accomplishes, first, by drying up the waters of the Euphrates which are explained in the very next verse (15): "The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues". Here we see the worldwide wide scope of the symbol of the beast and the ten horns. The woman is said to sit on two things:  (1) "The great whore sitteth upon many waters" (Rev. 17:1) which, as indicated by the marginal reference, is a direct quotation from Jer. 51:13 concerning ancient Babylon sitting upon the waters of the Euphrates. The woman is also said (2) to "sit upon a scarlet coloured beast" (v. 3). Obviously the explanation given of the symbol of the waters of the Euphrates covers also what is intended by the beast upon which she is also said to sit. Therefore as the waters of the Euphrates are said to refer to "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues", so the same is implied by the beast with the ten horns. The waters of the Euphrates served to make Babylon a prosperous city; similarly the beast and the ten horns serve to make modern Babylon prosperous. Either symbol serves the interests of Babylon. 

When the Lord intervenes on behalf of His people, when "the Lamb shall overcome" the forces of Babylon (v. 14) He dries up the waters of the Euphrates (v. 15) so that they no longer serve Babylon. Then, the religious leaders, forced by the terrifying manifestations of God's almighty power, make confession of their deceptions which have misled their followers to persecute God's people; then, as shown in the next verse: "The ten horn which thou sawest and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her utterly with fire. For God did put in their hearts to do His mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled" (vs. 16, 17, R.V,). Thus by the 6th plague poured out upon Babylon, her 

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supporters cease aiding her.  As Cyrus turned the waters aside and thus prevented them running through the city of Babylon, and as that became a menace to her safety, so the Lord will turn aside the support the people and nations have accorded Babylon and make that the first cause of her sudden loss of power, followed by her destruction "The ten horns that you saw, and the Beast–they will all hate the Prostitute, and cause her to become deserted and strip her bare" (20th Cent. N.T.). 

An illustration of what will occur then has already been given in Rev. 11. Here an anti-clerical beast rises from the bottomless pit–"a new manifestation of Satanic power . . . some power of Satanic origin and character" (GC. 268, 9)–which attacks the Papacy that had been attacking the church of Jesus, which is represented in v. 2 as "the holy city". Remember the principle of opposites we have shown to operate throughout the Apocalypse concerning the opposing forces of good and evil. In Rev. 11 there are two cities brought to view: (1) "The holy city" (v. 2), the symbol for "the true church", see GC. 266; and "the great city", the designation employed in the Revelation for Babylon, the false church. Verses 2, 3 have shown that the forces of Babylon trod "the holy city ... under foot forty and two months", but the Lord in His infinite wisdom permitted the rise of anti-clerical forces, particularly in France, where Protestants had suffered so shamefully through the connivance of Papal authorities. 

"But the outworking of all this was widely different from what Rome had purposed. Instead of holding the masses in a blind submission to her dogmas, her work resulted in making them infidels and revolutionists. . . . They beheld the clergy as a party to their oppression. . . . Rome had ground down the people under her iron heel; and now the masses, degraded and brutalized, in their recoil from her tyranny cast off all restraint. . . . Where France, under the influence of Romanism, had set up the first stake at the opening of the Reformation, there the Revolution set up its first guillotine. . All too well the people had learned the lessons of cruelty and torture which Rome had so diligently taught. A day of retribution at last had come. . . . Unsparing Rome now felt the deadly power of those whom she had trained to delight in deeds of blood the Roman Catholic clergy experienced all those woes which their church had so freely inflicted on the gentle heretics" (GC. 281-283) 

In that terrible time of retribution Rome reaped as she had sown: "There was a great earthquake and the tenth part of the city fell." (Rev. 11:13). Then, it was only a "tenth part of the city [of Babylon] that fell", but it was given by God as an indication of what will actually transpire all over the world when the whole of the city of Babylon will fall. That, symbolic earthquake (GC. 286) marked the time for the “tenth part of the city" of Babylon to fall, and that is a pointer directing us to the great and mighty earthquake which will shake the whole planet when the time has come for God to intervene on behalf of His persecuted people. Directing us to that time, the Revelator says: "And the 7th angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great 

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voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done . . . and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts" (Rev. 16:17-19). 

Thus we see definitely linked together in the Revelation the retribution which befell the forces of Babylon in France as an indication of what will occur in all the world when the hour comes for the Lord to intervene on behalf of His people. Then, the State and the people who had served the Papacy became her enemies bent upon her destruction. Thus will it be when the Lord brings confusion into the ranks of Babylon in the last days. "The great city" will be "divided into three parts"; first the beast and the kings hate the whore and destroy her, and then they turn upon each other with mutual hate and mutual slaughter. One of the reasons for stating that the kings would give their power and strength unto the beast is to indicate that they are united in their purpose to serve the Babylonian whore, and then, when God intervenes and thus reveals to them that they have been deceived by the Babylonian whore, they are united in their common objective to destroy in her. Thus in vs. 12, 13 they are pictured as being united in serving the Babylonian whore before the waters of the Euphrates are dried up when the Lamb makes war upon the forces of Babylon (vs. 14, 15); and then, after that, they are, united in their hatred and slaughter of the whore. Thus the kings do give their power and strength unto the woman through the beast which she rides and guides until after the 6th plague, when they join with the beast in destroying her. 

It may be noted that the kings destroy the Babylonian whore under the 7th plague, at which time the Lord puts forth His hand to completely destroy Babylon–see Rev. 16:19. The 7th plague occupies but a very brief space of time–only a few days, we have shown in "God Speaks–and Israel Triumphs". 

Now, as the kings destroy the Babylonian whore under the 7th plague it shows that they have not destroyed each other under the 6th plague in some supposed military conflict in far-away Palestine. The beast and the ten horns are united in their determination to destroy the whore–this refers to events to transpire under the 7th plague. However, after having destroyed the whore the kings engage then in mutual slaughter of each other. It should be noted that the destruction of the spiritual leaders–the Babylonian whore–and the slaughter among kings, rulers, governors, presidents and those in civil administration–represented by the beast and the ten horns–pictures the internal experiences of all nations. For in each nation the religious leaders are slain by the multitudes who have been deceived by them. And the picture always presented in the Spirit of Prophecy concerning 

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those solemn days is that after the multitudes have turned with fury upon their false spiritual advisers, they then turn upon each other to slay every man his neighbour with the swords which they have raised to kill the people of God.--see GC. 655, 656; EW. 290. 

Thus it can readily be seen that such a state of internal disruption, slaughter and utter chaos in each nation would render it impossible for nations at that time to be organized for a supposed conflict in Palestine. When it is remembered that God's wrath then being poured out causes the earth's surface to be utterly broken up (see GC. 636-640), and that the unsaved are then terrorized by the fearful demonstrations of the almighty power of God, each thinking of his own personal fate and of his immediate surroundings, seeing no future for himself or for his nation, etc., the thought of a literal gathering of all nations to Palestine under the 6th or 7th plagues is shown to be an absurdity.