Two
Great Classes of Christians
I saw
one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed:
and all the world wondered after the beast. Rev. 13:3.
In homage
to the Papacy the United States will not be alone. The influence of Rome in
the countries that once acknowledged her dominion, is still far from being
destroyed.
In the
last conflict the Sabbath will be the special point of controversy throughout
all Christendom. Secular rulers and religious leaders will unite to enforce
the observance of the Sunday; and as milder measures fail, the most oppressive
laws will be enacted. It will be urged that the few who stand in opposition
to an institution of the church and a law of the land ought not to be tolerated.
. . . Romanism in the Old World, and apostate Protestantism in the New, will
pursue a similar course toward those who honor the divine precepts.
The so-called
Christian world is to be the theater of great and decisive actions. Men in
authority will enact laws controlling the conscience, after the example of
the Papacy. Babylon will make all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of
her fornication. Every nation will be involved. [Rev. 18:3-7 quoted.]
The warning
of the third angel [of Revelation 14] . . . is represented in the prophecy
as being proclaimed with a loud voice, by an angel flying in the midst of
heaven; and it will command the attention of the world.
In the
issue of the contest all Christendom will be divided into two great classes--those
who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship
the beast and his image and receive his mark. Although church and state will
unite their power to compel "all, both small and great, rich and poor,
free and bond" (Revelation 13:16), to receive "the mark of the beast,"
yet the people of God will not receive it. The prophet of Patmos beholds "them
that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his
mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the
harps of God" and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Revelation
15:2, 3.