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# The Revelation of Jesus Christ - Number Eleven

The Image of the Beast

Author

Jeff Pippenger

Published

November 5, 2023

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Key Takeaways

- Cosmic Battle: Revelation 12 depicts the war between Christ and Satan, with the woman representing God’s church and the dragon symbolizing Satan.
- Historical Parallel: The early persecution of Christians by pagan Rome parallels the future persecution during the Sunday law crisis.
- End-time Events: The “woman” gives birth to Jesus in the past and in the future symbolizes the 144,000 and the great multitude of believers during the final crisis.
- Islam’s Role: The “three woes” in Revelation represent Islamic judgments against powers that enforce Sunday laws.
- Prophetic Waymarks: Key historical events, such as August 11, 1840, and September 11, 2001, are seen as milestones in Adventist prophecy, highlighting the rise of the image of the beast.
- Sunday Law Crisis: The combination of church and state, enforcing Sunday worship, is a key event that will test the faithfulness of believers.
- Image and Mark of the Beast: The image of the beast represents the union of church and state, while the mark signifies enforced Sunday observance.

> And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 12:1–17.

The first battle in the great controversy between Christ and Satan, began in the third heaven with Lucifer’s rebellion, and that first battle typifies the last battle in the first heaven. There is more warfare, for at the end of the thousand-year millennium, Satan is loosed for a little season, and mounts an attack against Jerusalem, but that battle has no possibility of victory. The battle in the third heaven at the beginning, which represents the battle in the first heaven at the end, was carried out while probation was open.

The “woman” that is pregnant with child, represents God’s church throughout history, and in the history of Christ she was about to give birth to the man child Jesus. In the last days, she gives birth to twins. Just before the Sunday law she births the one hundred and forty-four thousand, of Revelation seven, and at the Sunday law she begins the travail of birthing the great multitude of Revelation seven. Her twins are not identical, but they are twins, and the first born is Elijah and the younger son is Moses.

In the beginning of spiritual Israel, the dragon of pagan Rome was waiting to devour the man child Jesus, and the dragon of modern Rome is now waiting to devour the man child of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. As pagan Rome persecuted the early Christian church, modern Rome will repeat the persecution during the Sunday law crisis. In the early Christian church, the woman fled into the wilderness for twelve hundred and sixty literal years, and the persecution of the Sunday law crisis is symbolized by the forty-two months of Revelation thirteen and verse five. In the wilderness God’s people have a place prepared for them where they are fed and nourished.

In Revelation chapter eight, and verse thirteen, the last three trumpets are identified as three woes. The woes in Revelation represent the trumpet judgments of Islam against the powers that pass Sunday laws. In the warfare that is illustrated in chapter twelve, the role of Islam is identified when it states, “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” The persecution that Jezebel accomplishes through her apostate husband Ahab, is directed at the “earth” beast and the “sea” beast.

The movement of the mighty angel of Revelation eighteen, as with every reform movement, has four primary waymarks that lead to and include the judgment. For the movement of the first angel, those four waymarks were August 11, 1840, the first disappointment in the Spring of 1843, the arrival of the message of the Midnight Cry August 12 through 17 in 1844, and the opening of the judgment on October 22, 1844. Each of those four waymarks possessed the same overlying theme of “time.” August 11, 1840, was a fulfillment of the time prophecy of Revelation chapter nine, and verse fifteen. The first disappointment of 1843, represented a failed prediction of time. The Midnight Cry message was the correction of the previously failed prediction of time, and October 22, 1844, was the fulfillment of the predicted time of the message of the Midnight Cry.

The movement of the third angel has those same four waymarks, for they exist in every reform line, and as with all of those four waymarks of every reform line, each waymark possesses the same prophetic theme. Islam of the third woe, is the theme of the four waymarks in the movement of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. On September 11, 2001 Islam of the third woe was released and then restrained. The failed prediction of July 18, 2020 identified an Islamic attack upon Nashville, Tennessee, and represented Islam of the third woe. The message that awakens the dead dry bones that are in the street of Revelation eleven, is the perfect and final fulfillment of the Midnight Cry message, and it represents a correction of the Nashville prediction (without the element of time). It will be fulfilled at the fourth waymark, which is the Sunday law, where Islam of the third woe will strike the United States because of its enforcement of the soon-coming Sunday law.

When this truth is recognized, in conjunction with the fact that the mighty movement of the third angel is a warning of impending judgment, the Islamic judgment represented by the third woe can be easily understood as the “woe” that is brought upon “earth” and “sea.”

The judgment of the living began on September 11, 2001, and from that point, until the soon-coming Sunday law, the test of the formation of the image of the beast takes place in the United States. From the Sunday law until Michael stands up and human probation closes, the rest of the world will then be tested by the formation of the image of the beast. Whether Seventh-day Adventists in the United States are being tested, or the entire world after the Sunday law is being tested, the test is defined as the test where our eternal destiny will be decided. It is also the test we must pass, before probation closes at the Sunday law. The prophetic phenomenon of an image to the beast test first in the United States and then again in the world, is essential to understand correctly.

> “As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the Papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.” Testimonies, volume 6, 18.

When the symbols are understood, then the passage in Revelation thirteen, that addresses these two successive, but identical image of the beast tests, can be easily recognized. It is important for a variety of reasons. One reason is the corrupted communications that Lucifer employed in the first war in the third heaven illustrate how Satan’s corrupted communications will manifest again in the last war in the first heaven.

The war of the first heaven that begins at the Sunday law, is accomplished during the testing period of the image of the beast for the entire world. Since September 11, 2001, the testing period of the image of the beast in the United States has been taking place. When we recognize these two testing periods as sequential, beginning with the United States and then the world, we can then factor in truths that are represented in the war of Revelation chapter twelve, back into the history of 2001, unto the Sunday law. As an example, the corrupted communications of Lucifer that is defined as hypnosis, will be employed in a modern application by the dragon power during the battle of the first heaven, of Revelation chapter twelve. The hypnosis that is employed by the dragon in that history is for the purpose of murdering those that Jezebel has identified as heretics.

In the history of 2001, to the Sunday law, two witnesses were murdered in the street of Sodom and Egypt. In the first fulfillment of Revelation eleven, the nation represented by Sodom and Egypt, was France. France is a prophetic nation that consists of two powers, as did the Medo-Persian Empire, as did ancient Israel in its divided kingdoms, and as did the two tribes of Judah represented by Judah and Benjamin. All two-horned nations symbolically represent the two-horned nation of the United States.

The city of Sodom, and nation of Egypt, represents the two horns of Republicanism (Egypt) and Protestantism (Sodom). Two horns were slain in 2020, the horn of Republicanism and the horn of Protestantism. The hypnotism employed by the globalist dragon powers, through the medium of the worldwide web was then employed, in the same fashion that it will be employed in the upcoming war of the first heaven. By controlling the message that the worldwide web produced, the election of 2020, was scientifically manipulated to produce an outcome that agreed with the philosophy of globalism. This is simply an example of the necessity of understanding that the image of the beast test is accomplished first in the United States, and then in the world.

> “The Lord has shown me clearly that the image of the beast will be formed before probation closes; for it is to be the great test for the people of God, by which their eternal destiny will be decided. Your position is such a jumble of inconsistencies that but few will be deceived.

> “In Revelation 13 this subject is plainly presented; [Revelation 13:11–17, quoted].

> “This is the test that the people of God must have before they are sealed. All who proved their loyalty to God by observing His law, and refusing to accept a spurious sabbath, will rank under the banner of the Lord God Jehovah, and will receive the seal of the living God. Those who yield the truth of heavenly origin and accept the Sunday sabbath, will receive the mark of the beast.” Manuscript Releases, volume 15, 15.

Probation closes for Seventh-day Adventists, at the enforcement of the Sunday law. Those countries that follow the example of the United States, will close their probation as did the United States.

> “Foreign nations will follow the example of the United States. Though she leads out, yet the same crisis will come upon our people in all parts of the world.” Testimonies, volume 6, 395.

The final movements are rapid ones.

> “The agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones.” Testimonies, volume 9, 11.

To understand the test of the image of the beast, requires a certain amount of technical prophetic application. To start with, the mark of the beast and the image of the beast are two different symbols.

> “The ‘image to the beast’ represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas. The ‘mark of the beast’ still remains to be defined.” The Great Controversy, 445.

The mark of the beast is Sunday observance, and the image of the beast is a church that employs the civil power to enforce her religious doctrines.

> “The enforcement of Sundaykeeping on the part of Protestant churches is an enforcement of the worship of the papacy—of the beast. Those who, understanding the claims of the fourth commandment, choose to observe the false instead of the true Sabbath are thereby paying homage to that power by which alone it is commanded. But in the very act of enforcing a religious duty by secular power, the churches would themselves form an image to the beast; hence the enforcement of Sundaykeeping in the United States would be an enforcement of the worship of the beast and his image.” The Great Controversy, 448, 449.

The image of the beast represents the combination of church and state with the church in control of the relationship. Jezebel ruled over Ahab, as Herodias ruled over Herod. The mark of the beast is Sunday keeping. The image of the beast develops over a period of time. The mark of the beast represents a point in time. The image of the beast progressively develops, but only reaches its full maturity, when it has the power to force the state to pass its religious dogmas. The test is associated with the “formation” of the image.

> “But what is the ‘image to the beast’? and how is it to be formed? The image is made by the two-horned beast, and is an image to the beast. It is also called an image of the beast. Then to learn what the image is like and how it is to be formed we must study the characteristics of the beast itself—the papacy.

> “When the early church became corrupted by departing from the simplicity of the gospel and accepting heathen rites and customs, she lost the Spirit and power of God; and in order to control the consciences of the people, she sought the support of the secular power. The result was the papacy, a church that controlled the power of the state and employed it to further her own ends, especially for the punishment of ‘heresy.’ In order for the United States to form an image of the beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the state will also be employed by the church to accomplish her own ends.” The Great Controversy, 443.

The distinction between the image of the beast and the mark of the beast is fairly traditional Adventist understanding. Where Adventism generally loses its way on this subject is in Revelation thirteen. They somehow mix the activity of the United States after the Sunday law, when it forces the world to set up an image to the beast, with the setting up of the image of the beast in the United States. They are two different prophetic periods.

Christ came to confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the middle of the week He was crucified. Thus, that week typifies the two periods of time when an image of the beast is formed. Christ’s week was divided into two identical periods, representing the image of Christ. The two testing periods of times in the last days, represents the image of the antichrist.

In the first period of twelve hundred and sixty days, Christ bore His own testimony, and then He died on the cross. There was then an identical twelve hundred and sixty days where the disciples testified, until Michael stood up at the stoning of Stephen. The cross typifies the Sunday law. The two periods of testing in connection with the formation of the image of the beast, identify the first period in connection with the one hundred and forty-four thousand, who are typified by Christ, and that period ends at the Sunday law, which is typified by the cross. The last identical period of testing that was represented by the work of the disciples in the time of Christ, focuses upon the great multitude, and it ends when Michael stands up, not at the stoning of Stephen, but at the close of human probation in Daniel 12:1.

Some fail to see the actual sequence of events in Revelation thirteen, verse eleven and onward, due to what often appears to be a purposeful unwillingness to acknowledge that when the United States speaks as a dragon, it represents the complete formation of the image of the beast in the United States. In order for the United States to pass a Sunday law, the image of the beast in the United States must be formed before the Sunday law. Read the few previous passages just cited from The Great Controversy again, if you do not understand the point.

When the United States speaks as a dragon in verse eleven of chapter thirteen, it represents the action of the legislative and judicial authorities passing a Sunday law at the direction of the apostate churches in the United States. The Sunday law decree goes out of the mouth of the United States.

> “I saw that the two-horned beast had a dragon’s mouth, and that his power was in his head, and that the decree would go out of his mouth.” Spalding and Magan, 1.

It has always amazed me that Adventism has a hard time recognizing that when the two horned earth beast speaks as a dragon, it is not simply marking the Sunday law in the United States, but is also marking that the image of the papal sea beast has been fully developed. In order for the United States to pass the Sunday law, the combination of church and state has to have first been fully developed. The apostate churches of the United States do not simply come together on a Monday, then go to Congress on Tuesday, and tell Congress they want Sunday legislation passed by Wednesday. The combining process that takes place between church and state, is represented as the “formation” of the image of the beast like the “formation” of the golden image in Daniel chapter 3, it will take some time to construct. The image of the beast is the system the papacy used to murder the millions of martyrs in the Dark Ages, and it takes social, political, religious and economic developments to create the social environment, and legal precedence necessary, for the Sunday law to be enforced. Those developments represent the test of the image of the beast, by “which our eternal destiny will be decided,” and it represents the test we must pass “before we are sealed.”

> “The Lord has shown me clearly that the image of the beast will be formed before probation closes; for it is to be the great test for the people of God, by which their eternal destiny will be decided. . .. This is the test that the people of God must have before they are sealed.” Manuscript Releases, volume 15, 15.

The Sunday law is the crisis at midnight, that finds its final perfect fulfillment of the parable of the ten virgins. In that midnight crisis, it will be manifested whether we are wise Philadelphian or foolish Laodicean virgins. The foolish receive the mark of the beast and the wise receive the seal of God. Anyone who has ever joined the Seventh-day Adventist church, agreed to the list of doctrinal truths in advance of becoming a member, and therefore every Seventh-day Adventist has been presented with the light of the truth of the Sabbath.

> “If the light of truth has been presented to you, revealing the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and showing that there is no foundation in the Word of God for Sunday observance, and yet you still cling to the false sabbath, refusing to keep holy the Sabbath which God calls ‘my holy day,’ you receive the mark of the beast. When does this take place?—When you obey the decree that commands you to cease from labor on Sunday and worship God, while you know that there is not a word in the Bible showing Sunday to be other than a common working-day, you consent to receive the mark of the beast, and refuse the seal of God. If we receive this mark in our foreheads or in our hands, the judgments pronounced against the disobedient must fall upon us. But the seal of the living God is placed upon those who conscientiously keep the Sabbath of the Lord.” Review and Herald, April 27, 1911.

The formation of the image of the beast in the United States began prophetically on September 11, 2001. There are several prophetic witnesses to uphold this fact. From that point until the soon-coming Sunday law, Seventh-day Adventists are determining their eternal destiny, based upon whether they pass the image of the beast test or fail the image of the beast test. I would argue that very few Seventh-day Adventists even know that the image of the beast is a test. Few, if any, know how it can be a test, and more importantly, they do not know what is required to pass the test. We are judged, not alone by the light we possess, but also by the light we could have possessed, if we would have applied ourselves to understanding the increase of knowledge. Laodicean blindness is therefore the greatest blindness in six thousand years of sin.

> My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6.

The test of the formation of the image of the beast ends at the soon-coming Sunday law, and if we have not passed that test, we will receive the mark of the beast with all the other foolish Laodicean virgins, who refused to obtain the oil. I am not here defending why I understand the image of the beast test began on September 11, 2001, and ends at the Sunday law. I am simply identifying the prophetic logic necessary to understand the role of the United States, as identified in Revelation thirteen, after it passes the Sunday law. In verse eleven, it speaks as a dragon, and from that point on it is important to follow the word “he.” The image of the beast that the United States is then forcing the world to set up, is not the image of the beast in the United States, for that is already in the past.

> 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. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; 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 that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Revelation 13:11–17.

In those seven verses, the word “he” occurs eight times. Every time the word “he” is employed it refers back to the original “he,” “that spake as a dragon,” at the Sunday law in the United States. The image of the beast test that Adventists in the United States either passed or failed, when the United States spake as a dragon, is then repeated for Adventists in the other nations of the world, and also for God’s other children that are still in Babylon. We will continue our consideration of the United States in Revelation thirteen in the next article, but let me remind you of why we are considering this truth at this time.

The war that began with Lucifer in the third heaven typifies the war that begins in the first heaven at the Sunday law. The corrupted communications of the dragon are represented in both battles. The modern manifestation of Satan’s corrupted communications represents the hypnotic trance that planet earth succumbs to in the history after the soon coming Sunday law. That delusion is accomplished through the worldwide web’s control of what is called “the information super highway.” Those various avenues of the “information super highway” are social, economic, religious, so-called science, entertainment and more importantly the avenue of the news media.

Once the truth is recognized that the “information super highway,” is the modern manifestation of the Satanic hypnotic communications, and also the subtle hypnosis that was employed by Satan in the battle of the angels in the third heaven, we can establish the “information super highway” is an element of the “last” image of the beast test for the world, that takes place after the Sunday law. It will then be easy to recognize that the “first” image of the beast test for the United States must possess the same corrupted Satanic communications as the last. The witness of Satan’s work of corrupting “the information super highway” from the Sunday law through to the close of probation provides the evidence of how the murder of the two horns of Republicanism and the remnant of true Protestantism on the earth beast was accomplished in 2020. It was accomplished by the “information super highway,” that John calls a “street” in Revelation eleven.

The unsealing of these prophetic facts is a portion of what is required to be understood by those who intend to pass the test of the image of the beast, which was clearly seen by the prophetess, to be formed before probation closes and before the one hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed.

> “When the decree goes forth and the stamp is impressed, their character will remain pure and spotless for eternity.” Testimonies, volume 5, 216.

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