And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed (Revelation 13:11-12 emphasis added).
There is only one nation that qualifies to be the second beast, based on the criteria mentioned in this passage. The power described would have to become a mighty nation in order to exercise authority over all the nations of the world. It had to have arisen out of an unoccupied territory, because it was "coming up out of the earth," or the opposite of the sea, which symbolizes occupation of many nations and languages.
As seen in the passage above, the power would have lamb-like qualities, but would speak like a dragon. This means that the nation must have attributes of Christ, but that it would relinquish these in favor of attributes of the dragon.
Only America Qualifies
The United States of America is a global power that was established in a sparsely populated area of the world. During the 1260 years of persecution against the Protestant Church, God was preparing a place of escape for His persecuted saints. At the right time, as the Reformation was gaining power and the Catholic Church was weakening, Protestant Christians came across the Atlantic to escape the reach of Rome’s oppressive arm.
In Revelation 12:15-16 we are told this:
So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth (NKJV).
In this passage, the earth represents the uninhabited New World to which the woman (the persecuted Church, see Jeremiah 6:2 and 2 Corinthians 11:2) fled to escape papal persecution. By 1776 the War of Independence had ended. The American Constitution was written in 1789. In 1798, France, the mightiest nation in Europe at the time, formally recognized America as an independent nation, giving the country the Statue of Liberty.
America was founded on lofty Christian principles of freedom and equality. It represented everything Rome hated. America's two greatest documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, are filled with Protestant declarations that are absolutely intolerable to Rome. America was the bastion of Protestantism, a free world with no monarch that could be controlled by Rome as the many monarchs of Europe had been for centuries.
America had a republican form of government. It spelled a massive threat to the rebuilding of Rome's control in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation. Not surprisingly, we find the Vatican opposed to the founding documents of the United States, as Avro Manhattan, British broadcasting journalist and author of over 20 books on the Vatican tells us:
The Vatican condemned the Declaration of Independence as wickedness and called the Constitution of the United States a Satanic Document.i
Plans had been laid at the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and subsequent Councils to regain the power lost during the Reformation. This Counter Reformation that began during the Council of Trent had to ensure that the new nation of America did not get strong enough to oppose Rome's plans. The early founders of America recognized the threat their new country posed to the Old World power. Many founding leaders wrote of this threat and did what they could to prevent it.
Charles Chiniquy, an ex-Catholic priest and author of the book Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, lived during the early part of America's history. In his book, he writes, "Rome saw at once that the very existence of the United States was a formidable menace to her own life."ii He also wrote, "Liberty of conscience is proclaimed by the United States a most sacred principle, which every citizen must uphold...But liberty of conscience is declared by all the popes and councils of Rome, a most godless, unholy, and diabolical thing, which every good Catholic must abhor and destroy at any cost."iii
It was in 1854 that Pope Pius IX wrote, "The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error—a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a state."iv
The Papacy thoroughly detests liberty of conscience. In 1864, in his encyclical Quanta Cura, Pius IX condemned to hell "those who assert liberty of conscience and of religious worship."v The United States of America's founding principles were obviously a serious threat to Rome, and not to be tolerated. Many saw Rome making silent subtle advances into America's inner workings through Rome's secret police, the Jesuits.
As the years progressed, through the subtlety of these enemies and America's diminished faithfulness to its Protestant roots, the nation was slowly changed and infiltrated. It no longer resembles the lofty ideal it once stood for.
Read America: Losing Hold on the Truth
i. Avro Manhattan, The Dollar and the Vatican (Ozark Book Publishers, 1988): 26.
ii. Charles Chiniquy, Fifty Years in the "Church" of Rome (California: Chick Publications, 1985): 291.
iii. Ibid: 284.
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This article is adapted from Truth Matters by Professor Walter J. Veith, an international speaker who has studied Biblical issues in-depth in his quest for truth. His popular series Genesis Conflict brings the debate between Creation and evolution to a new climax as he dissects the arguments with a scientific eye. His highly-acclaimed series Total Onslaught sheds light on the state of the world today as we move to a one-world government and an anticipated apocalypse.
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It is our sincere desire to lay the clear Word of God before you, the truth-seeking reader, so you may decide for yourself what is truth and what is error. If you find herein anything contrary to the Word of God, you need not accept it. But if you desire to seek for Truth as for hidden treasure, and find herein something of that quality, we encourage you to make all haste to accept that Truth which is revealed to you by the Holy Spirit.
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Geocentricity: It's Time to Face the Facts
The Rise of Evolutionary Thinking
Earth's History: Conflicting Paradigms
Lamarck Proposes Natural Selection
Age Of The Earth Is Carbon-Dating Accurate?
Flood Chronology
Read several authors' thoughts on papal Rome's history.
This article highlights quotes from historical and Catholic sources proving the Papacy's aggressive nature.
Persecution in the First Centuries
An Era of Spiritual Darkness The Waldenses
John Wycliffe Huss and Jerome
Luther's Separation From Rome
Luther Before the Diet The Swiss Reformer
Progress of Reform in Germany
Protest of the Princes The French Reformation
The Netherlands and Scandinavia
Later English Reformers
The Bible and the French Revolution
The Pilgrim Fathers Heralds of the Morning
An American Reformer Light Through Darkness
A Great Religious Awakening A Warning Rejected
Prophecies Fulfilled What is the Sanctuary?
In the Holy of Holies God's Law Immutable
A Work of Reform Modern Revivals
Facing Life's Record The Origin of Evil
Enmity Between Man and Satan
Agency of Evil Spirits Snares of Satan
The First Great Deception
Can Our Dead Speak to Us?
Liberty of Conscience Threatened
The Impending Conflict
The Scriptures a Safeguard The Final Warning
The Time of Trouble God's People Delivered
Desolation of the Earth The Controversy Ended
Is Revelation a Sealed Book?
Revelation 1 Commentary
Revelation 1: Jesus, The Heart of Revelation
Revelation 2 Commentary
Revelation 2-3: Letters to Seven Churches
Revelation 3 Commentary
The Lamb and the Sealed Book
Revelation 4 Commentary
Revelation 5 Commentary
Revelation 6 Commentary
Revelation 7 Commentary
Revelation 8 Commentary
Revelation 9 Commentary
Revelation 10 Commentary
Revelation 11 Commentary
Revelation 12 Commentary
Revelation 13 Commentary
Revelation 14 Commentary
Revelation 15 Commentary
Revelation 16 Commentary
Revelation 17 Commentary
Revelation 18 Commentary
Revelation 19 Commentary
Revelation 20 Commentary
Revelation 21 Commentary
Revelation 22 Commentary
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