Spirit of Prophecy Counsels Relating To Church-State Relationships

Important Symbols

Under the symbols of the great red dragon, a leopard-like beast, and a beast with lamblike horns; the earthly governments which would be especially engaged in trampling upon God’s law and persecuting His people, were presented to John. Their war is to be carried on till the close of time. The people of God, symbolized by a holy woman and her children, are represented as greatly in the minority. In the last days, only a remnant still exists. John speaks of them as those that “keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” SPCCSR 120.3

For many centuries, first through paganism and then through the Papacy, Satan exerted his powers to blot from the earth God’s faithful witnesses. Both heathen and papists were actuated by the same dragon spirit. They differed only in that the Romish apostate, making a pretense of serving God, was the more dangerous and cruel foe. Through the agency of Romanism, Satan took the world captive. The professed church of God was swept into the ranks of this delusion, and for more than a thousand years the true people of God suffered under the dragon’s ire.—The Signs of the Times, February 8, 1910. SPCCSR 121.1