The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 69

June 14, 1892

“The Sermon. The Late Decision of the Supreme Court, and the Image of the Beast ¹” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 69, 24, pp. 369, 370.

BY ELDER A. T. JONES
(Battle Creek, Mich.)

A GOOD many questions have been asked since this time last Sabbath, besides the ones I asked while here. Some have been asked to me; many, to others. I want to ask some more to-day. There were three classes in this audience last Sabbath: one class saw the truth of what was set before them; another class did not know whether to believe it or not, exactly: a third class did not see it at all, because they did not believe it. I have no qualifications to make to-day of what was brought before you last Sabbath. If I should speak on that same subject again, all I could do would be to emphasize what has been said,—that the evidences that are brought before everybody in the United States now show plainly that practically, so far as principle goes, the image of the beast is made. I say again, all that remains is to give life to it. I do not know how long it will be before that is done; I make no comments nor remarks upon that at all. I know nothing about it; but I do know that the thing is true that far. As to how long it will take to give life to it and carry these things into practice, I know nothing. I am waiting to see; that is all. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 369.1

Here is what I would like to lay before you all. I shall do it slowly, and ask you all to think: I suppose that nineteen twentieths of those who are here to-day, and those who were here last Sabbath, are Seventh-day Adventists. That which makes us Seventh-day Adventists is the third angel’s message; and that message is a warning to all people against the worship of the beast and his image. We, being Seventh-day Adventists, are, therefore, by the very name as well as the profession itself, professedly giving that message to the world. That is well enough. Now is any Seventh-day Adventist who cannot tell the image of the beast when he sees it, qualified to give that message of warning against the worship of it and the beast? I want you to think of this, therefore I will say it again. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 369.2

The third angel’s message warns against the worship of the beast and his image. That message has made us Seventh-day Adventists. We are therefore in a place to give that warning, and that is what God expects of us, that is what the world expects of us, and that is what our name demands we shall do. I say that is all right so far; but further, I say, being a Seventh-day Adventist, if I cannot discern indeed, and know the image of the beast when I see it, then am I qualified to give that message to other people not to worship him? If you are in that position, are you qualified to give that message? If you do not know, and would not know, the image of the beast when you saw it, then what are you here for? I do not mean what are you in the Tabernacle for, I mean what are you Seventh-day Adventists for? What are you professing to give that message to the world for? Ask yourselves this question, please. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 369.3

Let us look at the Scripture a little while. Let us read that prophecy of the beast and his image image in Revelation 13. The first half of the chapter gives a description of the beast and what it did; the latter part, a description of the image of the beast, and what it is to do: “Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause,” etc. That speaks first of the image of the beast, then a living image, then a speaking image, then an acting image. It is to be therefore a living, speaking, acting image of the papacy. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 369.4

Then it will not be a mere statue, or a picture on paper, lifeless, but it will be a living image of the original. It will be alive; it will live like the other, and it will speak like the other, and it will act like the other. Now we have seen statues or pictures of men, and being acquainted with the persons, we could tell whether the statue or the portrait was a very close likeness or not. In general, they are so very close that any one who is at all acquainted with the original can recognize the likeness. Now when a person wants to express the closest possible likeness of one thing to another, he says it is a living image of it. you have doubtless heard persons, looking at a portrait, say, “It seems almost as though he ought to speak.” That is exactly what the Scripture says about the image of the beast; the likeness is so close that every feature will be so precisely like the original that he will actually speak. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 369.5

But how are we going to be able to recognize, and to know, that this thing is the image of the other? Suppose I had here a photograph, or portrait, large enough for all to recognize the features plainly, and should hold it up before you, how could you tell of whom that was a likeness? Who alone in the house would be best able to tell? Those who know nothing about the original, or those who are best acquainted with the original? I ask you to think of these things, brethren, because they will be for you to think of every day from this day forward, and more and more as the days go by. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 369.6

I ask again, If I should hold up the picture of some one, who in this house could tell of whom that was a picture? You all know that it would be the one who is best acquainted with the original. If there was any one here who was acquainted with the person himself, had seen him, had studied his countenance and his features, and was perfectly familiar with him, he would be the best qualified to tell how correct the likeness was, would he not? If there should be one here who knew nothing about the original, who knew none of his features, would he be qualified to tell whether that was a likeness of him or not? This is the point I want to get into your minds: If you want to know and recognize the image of the beast, and know every feature of him just as quick as you see him, STUDY THE ORIGINAL, study the beast. Isn’t that correct? Isn’t that the way to get at the trust of this thing? ARSH June 14, 1892, page 369.7

Let us take that picture again, and hold it up before you: Suppose no one of you, nor I either, ever saw the person, or knew anything about the person of whom it is a picture, how could we tell of whom it was a picture? How could we tell that it was not simply some man’s fancy that had graven it, and had made a picture of no particular person, but simply a picture from his own imagination? Not one of us could tell. But if any one had seen the person of whom this is a picture, and was acquainted with him, had studied his features and his characteristics, he could say in a moment, “That is the likeness of” such and such a person. Then, if you had any confidence in his statement; if you had any idea that he was acquainted with that person, or that he had ever seen him, then ever after, when you should see that picture, you could tell whose picture it was. Yet this would be to you only borrowed knowledge. The only possible way in which you could ever know of yourself, of your own knowledge, that that was a picture of that other person, is for you to see that very person yourself. And the more you should study the original, the more fully you should become acquainted with him, with his features, the expression of his countenance, and his characteristics, the more readily you would be qualified to recognize him in the picture wouldn’t you? ARSH June 14, 1892, page 369.8

Now the Scripture says that an image of the beast is to be made. It is to be a living image, it will speak and act just like the other. Then when the Scripture tells you and me to look out for the image of the beast, and be afraid of that image of the beast,—not afraid in the sense of being afraid that it will hurt you, but being afraid of falling into the way of worshiping it,—then the thing for you and me to do is to study the thing of which it is an image. Study that, and get acquainted with that, and then you will have no difficulty whatever in detecting the image of the beast whenever, and in whatever way it appears. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 369.9

Now aside from this Supreme Court decision which has struck the key of the whole situation, there are no fewer than a dozen distinct things now before the American people, any one of which if left to itself to run to its logical course and reach its logical outcome, would make all that the third angel’s message warns against, and all that it tells about. I say there are no less than a dozen of these things. Now do you know that? Are you able to see the image of the beast, the features of the papacy, in all these things that are before your eyes? If not, why not? ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.1

As I said last Sabbath, more than forty years this thing has been talked about. For forty years it has been said that this thing was coming. Is it going to be forty years more before it comes? I very much fear that it will be more than that to many who do not see it now; for the very reason that the unbelief or the carelessness which has blinded the minds of those who do not now see it, will simply grow more and more upon them, and they will be unable to see it when it stands up alive, in its direct and positive workings; and so when it does come and stand here in its direct workings, enforcing the mark of the beast, I have fears that they will compromise with it, and that they will actually keep Sunday, because the law says so. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.2

Now some do not see the image of the beast in this thing, because they have a scheme fixed up in their own minds as to just what the image to the beast will be, and just how it is going to be made. But just as certain as one is in that position, he will never see it as long as he holds to that idea. Because that thing is not going to be made in the way that any man may imagine, nor according to any plan he would lay out. No one but the Lord knows exactly how that thing is going to be made. and it will be made in such a way that none can see it clearly except through the third angel’s message. Just as sure as we fix up a plan in our minds, and say it will come just so, then just that way it will never come, because that is our way: that is the way we would have it come, and that is not the way it is going to come. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.3

So please let me say to you, Never you fix any plan in your mind, not let any other people’s ideas come into your mind, as to just how that thing will come. For just as sure as you do it, you will be just that far unprepared to see the thing and recognize it and meet it when it domes come. If you have any such ideas now, banish them this minute, and never entertain them again. Never originate any of your own as to how it is going to be, nor let anybody lead you off, never. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.4

This is the thing to do: Seek God, study his word that speaks of this, as he tells you to study it, and then stand, watch, wait, and be ready to detect that wicked thing the moment it appears, however it may come, and in whatever way it may come. Be thus ready to detect it and to understand its principles, and then you will not be taken unawares, you will not be caught in the trap. But just as surely as you set up your own idea and form a plan as to how that thing is going to be, how it will come in, and what features will come in first, just so certainly you will not be able to discern it at all when it does come: for your eyes will be on the wrong thing. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.5

Let us return to the necessity of studying the original in order to recognize an image. There is the papacy, the beast, that has been made: its history, its living self, stands before the world. There is the original of which this is to be so close a likeness. Now I say if you and I will be prepared to recognize that image just as soon as it appears, and whatever feature of it does appear, we must be acquainted with the original. And if we would understand the making of this, we must understand the making of the other. Do you know how the other was made? Let me read a line or two from “Testimony No. 32,” p. 205: “Protestants are working in disguise to bring Sunday to the front, as did the Romanists.” How did the Romanists do it? Do you know? That is simply saying that the image of the beast is being made now, just as the beast was being made then. How was he made? do you know? Have you studied that thing? ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.6

Well, says one, “I have not had time to give to these things as I know I ought to.” Let me tell you, my brethren, you have no time for anything else. I know that there is in a measure an excuse for some of the brethren; but there is no shadow of excuse for any Seventh-day Adventist minister in that respect. No Seventh-day Adventist minister has any kind of excuse whatever for not having studied the making of the beast, and what the beast is, until he is perfectly familiar with every feature of it, because that is just what he is here for. He is called of God as a watchman to this people and this generation, and he must not let his time run by listlessly and carelessly, and not study that thing and know every feature of it, so he can point it out to the people in whatever way it may appear. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.7

The minister is entirely without excuse from that standpoint alone; but he is doubly so in view of the fact that, nine years ago, in this Tabernacle in General Conference, a testimony was presented in which the ministers were told plainly that that thing was working secretly, and would be sprung on the people unawares; and for this reason every minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church was told to study that thing, to be ready and watchful, so that the moment it appeared, the warning might be given. This has been neglected these nine years, and to-day ministers who were in that Conference know scarcely any more about it than they did then. Those who were in a position then to take the lead in the study of that thing, and in following the directions of that testimony, took the other course, and instead of preparing the people, and preparing themselves to prepare the people, to see that thing, to show it to them the moment it appeared, they thought, “Well, that is all good enough to talk about, but then we must be very careful not to discuss that subject at the expense of the third angel’s message and to the neglect of that.” You cannot discuss that subject to the neglect of the third angel’s message, because it is the third angel’s message. Any one who is afraid of discussing or studying that subject to the neglect of the third angel’s message, does not know what the third angel’s message is. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.8

In the words of “Testimony No. 33,” p. 243, I would say: “May the Lord forgive our brethren for thus interpreting the very message for this time.” Again: I say from the principle of the thing, standing as a minister, called of God at this time, it should be his sole object, and he has no time for anything else than to study that thing and become acquainted with it, so that he can detect any feature of the image when it appears, and show it to the people, that none may be deceived. From that standpoint along every Seventh-day Adventist minister is without excuse; but when God sends special instruction upon it, how to prepare for it, they are doubly without excuse in not knowing. All are still less without excuse now than before; because in the book “The Two Republics,” every material feature of the papacy, in itself and in its making, is portrayed. And it is now seven months since the book was issued—long enough for every Seventh-day Adventist in the United States to have studied it thoroughly. How much longer will they put it off? Thus it is that some are now unable to recognize it when it stands right before their faces. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.9

But just let me say to you, There are some people, not Seventh-day Adventists, who are able to recognize it. the Sunday-law people recognize it. Therefore I call your attention to what they say about it. I have here a copy of the Christian Statesman, the number in which was printed that very Supreme Court decision which I read here last Sabbath. The Statesman of April 30, 1892, says:— ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.10

The Seventh-day Adventists and other advocates of the secular theory of government are greatly agitated by this decision. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.11

Is that true? Are you agitated over it? Strictly speaking, that statement was written, there was hardly one in a dozen of the Seventh-day Adventists who had learned of the Supreme Court decision. How, then, could the National Reformers know that we were greatly agitated by it? Ah! they know that that decision does the very thing that we have been all this time saying would be done. They know that that decision brings the very thing which we have been all this time saying would come. They know that this makes and sets up the very thing which we have been looking for. And knowing this, they naturally expect us to be agitated by it; knowing this, they know that we ought to be agitated by it. When they see this thing done, they know that that means what we have been talking about. When they see these things come to pass that we have been talking about, they know that that means what the third angel’s message has been warning against. They know that strikes at us. They know that the very thing has come which we have been saying would come. Now when they know it, and are so prompt to declare it, ought not we to know it and be just as prompt to declare it? ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.12

Again: I ask, Are the Seventh-day Adventists agitated over it? if not, is it not time that they were? I do not mean to be agitated in any such way as to be shown in flighty or scared demonstrations, but in a solemn seeking of God, keeping pace with the message, drinking deeply of the true spirit of the message, studying God’s word, his warnings, and instructions, and showing to others the light and truth which we ourselves have received. ARSH June 14, 1892, page 370.13

(Concluded next week.)