USA in Prophecy: Revelation 13:11-14

by koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

25 October 2009

This theme is not original. Uriah Smith focussed on France in Daniel 11:40-45, the last five verses before the coming of the Messiah, and he should have focussed on the USA, the empire that took over when the Holy Roman Empire got its "deadly wound" in 1798 when Berthier arrested the pope and stripped him from his glory.

The first beast of Revelation 13 is the Roman Catholic Church between 538-1798. It was the World Order of the Middle Ages. Nothing could be done without the consultation or impact of the Catholic Church on all matters.

The Statue of Liberty was given to the USA for its role in helping France to be what it is. That was in Victorian times that the gift was donated to the USA by France.

When one looks at the Roman Catholics today, some will find it hard to believe that they could have been so cruel during these 1260 years but the Catholics of today changed their style during Vatican II and operate now with an ecumenical spirit, pluralism, tolerance for the sake of getting closer and then tow them back to their own fold. The original purpose has not changed, just the modus operandi. Revelation 13 says that the USA or second beast will give power to the first beast. The wounded situation of the Catholic Church was healed in 1929 when the Vatican gained its independence as a country or state. In 1979 the pope went to the USA and spoke at the UN. In 1980 Carter visited the pope. In 1984 Reagan and the pope met. In 1989 Bush I and the pope met. In 1994 Clinton and the pope met. In 2002 Bush II met the pope. In 2004 Bush II met the pope again.

The style of the World Empire/First World Order leader, the USA, is pluralism, "allies and friends" and  also the Vatican adopted since 1963-64 this ideology of pluralism and ecumenism 'church allies and friends' style.

Our focus here is not on the first beast and its healing in Revelation 13, but on the second beast, the USA.

People say that Seventh Day Adventists invented the doctrine that the second beast of Revelation 13 is the USA. It may be so but that the USA was to be the leader of the new world order after the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1798, is witnessed not by Adventists first.

Our source is coming from George Butler who in his book, Facts for the Times: A Collection of Valuable Historical Extracts on a Great Variety of Subjects (Battle Creek, Michigan: Review and Herald, 1885), 102-104 provide us with valuable witnesses to the prediction that the USA will become a global leader.

Global leader predictions regarding the USA

1. S. D. Baldwin (Soule Female College)

"The whole history of the world is, therefore, given prophetically at different times, and all points of great interest to the church are embraced in prophecy. There is not a single age since the oral prophets, but is the subject of their predictions; nor is any great nation, whose existence virtually affects the church, neglected by them, unless the United states be that nation. How can it be that all other nations affecting the cause of God, and man,  should be specifically and repeatedly predicted by prophets, and our country, which has done more good than all others, not be mentioned by the prophets?"

2. John Adams on 12 October 1775

"Soon after the Reformation, a few people came over into this New World for conscience' sake. Perhaps this apparently trivial incident may transfer the great sea of empire to America".

3. Adams after the Declaration of Independence wrote:

"Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men."

4. Count D'Aranda, one of the first Spanish statesmen in 1783 wrote of the USA:

"This Federal Republic is born a pigmy, so to speak. It required the support and forces of two powers as great as Spain and France in order to attain independence. A day will come when it will be a giant, even a colossus formidable in these countries."

5. Governor Pownal, an English Statesman in 1780 spoke of the USA as follows:

"A revolution that has stronger marks of divine interposition superseding the ordinary course of human affairs than any other event which this world has experienced"

6. G. Alfred Townsend said about the USA

"This hemisphere was laid away for no one race".

7. Uriah Smith wrote in "United States in the Light of Prophecy" page 11

"1. No nation has ever acquired so vast a territory in so quiet a manner.

2. No nation has ever risen to such greatness by so peaceable means"

3. No nation has ever advanced so rapidly in all that constitutes national strength and capital.

4. No nation has ever risen to such a pinnacle of power in a space of time so incredibly short.

5. No nation in so limited a time has developed such unlimited resources.

6. No nation has ever existed founded on principles of justice so pure and undefiled.

7. No nation has ever existed in which the consciences of men have been left so untrammeled and free.

8. In no nation in no age of the world have the arts and sciences  so flourished, so many improvements been made, and so great successes been achieved, as in our own country during the last fifty years.

9. In no nation and in no age has the gospel found such freedom, and the churches of Christ had such liberty to spread abroad their principles and develop their strength"

Chronology of the Rise of the USA

1. John Litch in Restitution page 131 wrote:

"The two-horned beast [USA of Revelation 13:11] is represented as a power existing and performing his part after the death and revival of the first beast".

2. John Wesley in 1750 Notes on Revelation 13.

"He has not yet come, though he cannot be far off; for he is to appear at the end of the forty-two months of the first beast."

Location of the Second Beast

1. Bishop Berkley

"Westward  the course of empire takes its way"

2. Dublin Nation (1850) wrote:

"In the West an opposing and still more wonderful American empire is emerging. We islanders have no conception of the extraordinary events which, amid the silence of the earth, are daily adding to the power and pride of this gigantic nation".

Manner of the USA's rise

1. Says George Butler (1885):

"The Word which John uses to describe the manner in which this beast come up, is very expressive. It is anabainon, one of the prominent definitions of which is, "to grow or spring up as a plant"; and it is a remarkable fact that this very figure has been chosen by political writers as one which best illustrates the rise of our government".

2. G. A. Townsend, "The New World Compared with the Old" page 462

"Since America was discovered, she has been a subject of revolutionary thought in Europe. The mystery of her coming forth from vacancy the marvel of her wealth in gold and silver ..." and then on page 635 "and like a silent seed, we grew into empire".

3. George Butler outlined some history for us about the USA:

a. In 1783 the war of the Revolution closed by a treaty of peace with Great Britain whereby 815,615 square miles were ceded.

b. In 1787 the Constitution was framed and ratified by thirteen states and in March 1789 it went into operation.

c. "Then the American ship of state was fairly launched, with less than one million square miles of territory, and about three millions of souls" (Butler 1885: 107).

4. Macmillan & Co. said in the Year Book:

"There are now forty-one states in Europe against fifty-nine which existed in 1817. Not less remarkable is the territorial extension of the superior states of the world. Russia has annexed 567,364 square miles; the United States, 1,968,009; France 4,620; Prussia 29,781; Sardinia expanding into Italy, has increased 83,041; the Indian empire has been augmented by 431,616." Says Butler, "During the last half century, twenty-one governments have disappeared altogether; and only three  new ones have arisen" (Butler 1885: 108). He continued citing from a source on dated 4th of July 1862: "Thus the United States government has added over fourteen hundred thousand square miles of territory more than any other single nation, and over eight hundred thousand more than have been added by all the other nations of the earth put together!" (General Hiram Walbridge in New York).

The increase of the USA was since 1790:

Four times greater than Russia

Six times greater than Great Britain

Nine times greater than Austria and

Ten times greater than France  (Butler 1885: 108).

5. Global leader

Townsend said:

"...people living on two oceans and in two zones are represented in Washington, and their consuls and embassadors are in every port and metropolis of the globe".

6. Not only large territory but large wealth in 1885:

"The position which the United States holds among the nations of the world is clearly shown by the wonderful fact that one-fifth of the wealth of the seventeen principle countries of the globe is credited to this Republic. . . " Domestic Journal (op. cit. Butler 1885: 110).

Two horns as powers: Republicanism and Protestantism (Butler 1885: 116).

Butler felt that the two horns in Daniel 8 referred to the Medes and the Persians so he feels that the two horns on the beast representing the USA are Republicanism and Protestantism.

Butler indicated that the Little Horn established itself in 538 (Butler 1885: 116).

Application of Revelation 13:11

a. Lamb-like appearance (protestantism and republicanism)

b. Dragon voice

i) Quaker persecution  of 27 October 1659 "Quakers to be whipped, have the tongue bored with a redhot iron, and killed. Four were killed. . . " in Hutchingson's History of Massachusetts vol. 1: 180-189 (Butler 1885: 117).

ii) Charles Beecher, Sermon on Creeds said:

"Our best, most humble and devoted servants of Christ are fostering in their midst what will one day, not long hence, show itself to be the spawn of the dragon".

c. Great Wonders

i) Spiritualism

ii) "Amulets, charms, enchantments, spells, fascination, incantation, magic, mesmerism, philters, talismans, relics, witchcraft, ecstasy, hallucination, specters, trance, illusions, apparitions, clairvoyance, somnambulism, miracles, sympathy" Sunderland in Butler 1885: 118.

d. The image to the Beast

i) The image will be a union of church and state (Butler 1885: 118).

ii) Ecumenical councils meets for the same purpose (Butler 1885: 120).

iii) "We can hardly talk about anything without referring to our flag, and bringing the patriotism in" (Butler 1885: 121). Church and patriotism is considered also part of it.

Conclusion by Butler:

"To be in alliance with the civil power is to be against the doctrine of Christ" (Butler 1885: 131 with scriptural verses supplied). Fellow American church members are asked not to be to closely connected to patriotism or to civil powers, by Butler in 1885 referring to a number of scriptural warnings against it (2 John 9; Luke 3:14; Matthew 26:52; 2 Corinthians 10:4; Proverbs 20:22; 24:29; Luke 6:27-29; 12:14; Romans 12:17, 19; 1 Corinthians 6:7; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; and 1 Peter 3:9.

In conclusion we say that we marvel how Butler was able to analyse so correct the nature and identity of the second Beast of Revelation 13. It is now 2009 and Seventh Day Adventists still thinks that it is the USA, today even more so than in their days. Prophecy is the certain Word of God providing us with the map of events of the End Time preparing us for shaking times ahead of us.

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