VIII.—The Future Religion-Worship of Satan
Genesis, presenting man in innocence, shows that he is confronted by a being who seeks to supplant God in the mind and heart of His creature, man. Satan insinuates that, in the nominal act of fealty imposed, God was keeping back something good; he seeks to appear more generous than God—always his policy—and through that, tempts man to his ruin. Satan really cares naught for man, but he gains his object of displacing the good Creator from man's loyal affection. Now Genesis is a book of beginnings. It exhibits either in fact or in type all the principles of the relationships of men with God; and the Apocalypse which closes the canon of Scripture, shows the ultimate issue of all that Genesis gives in embryo. Thus, if Genesis shows the initial effort of Satan to gain an entrance into man's mind, the Apocalypse exhibits, in full development, Satan obtaining at last, publicly and openly, worship by the world as God.
Such is the appalling maturity of influences and movements which even now are working like a ferment in men's minds. Through the ages Satan has been aiming at this, but heretofore has only placed other objects before man for his worship, gaining thus, however, the primary step of supplanting God, but not, so far, offering himself as the direct substitute. He is indeed “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:44In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)), but is worshipped through other objects which are pleasing to mankind. The time is coming, however, when the veil will be removed, and Satan be worshipped without ambiguity. So saith the scripture: “All the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast” (Rev. 13:3, 43And 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. 4And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (Revelation 13:3‑4)). The ultimate doom of this malignant being is to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (chap. 20:10), and tormented forever and ever. But this will not be until his furthermost efforts against God have been put forth and frustrated. At the present time his activity is ceaseless—though, in an age of rest which is coming for this world, he will be bound and imprisoned for a thousand years (vers. 1-3).
With our ideas it may seem incredible that sober people of modern civilization should become idolaters, and, strangest of all, that the Jews should revert once more to their ancient and special form of wickedness of which they had seemed to be so thoroughly cured ever since the Babylonish captivity. But in a parable in Matthew 12 the Lord prophesied that it would be so. That chapter gives the rejection of Christ by the Jews, a council being held as to how they might destroy Him (ver. 14). The rest of the chapter is mainly occupied with His judgment upon that “evil and adulterous generation"; and at ver. 43 He puts forth the following parable— “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return unto my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”
The concluding words clearly define the parable as prophetic of the future history of that wicked race, the Christ-rejecting Jews. It has other applications, but this is the direct and principal. The demon of idolatry has been cast out, but has not been replaced by the true worship of Jehovah, for they have rejected Him in the person of the Christ. In the language of Hosea already quoted they are “without a sacrifice” (i.e. the worship of Jehovah), and they have not filled the void with a false god, for they are also “without an image.” The house, then, is empty, swept, and garnished. The result will be the return of the unclean spirit—idolatry—in more than seven-fold force. The seven spirits which are added to the first are more wicked than the original one, even as the worship of the antichrist will be more blasphemously evil than the ancient worship of Milcom, Ashtoreth, or other abominations. The rejection of their own Messiah leaves the Jews peculiarly liable to the delusion of the false Messiah when Satan's time shall have come to present him for their acceptance. This is what the Lord referred to when He said, “I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (John 5:4343I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. (John 5:43)); and again He said, referring to His own rejection, “If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry” (Luke 23:3131For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? (Luke 23:31))? If such were the budding iniquity of that day, what dreadful fruit might there not be in the maturity of the plant.
But the parable of Matthew 12 is direfully appropriate to Christendom as well as to the Jews. That the course of Christendom will terminate in the abandonment and repudiation of the Christian faith has been shown in chapter v. of this paper. The house then will be empty and swept; but more, it will be garnished. Mentally intoxicated by scientific discoveries and the refinements of high civilization, and no longer restrained by the true knowledge of God, the minds of men will be prepared to accept the Satanic delusions of the end of the age, and will fall into idolatrous worship of the antichrist and the Roman beast, and even of Satan as we shall see. Accordingly, we find in the Revelation, that “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the Roman beast), whose names are not written from the foundation of the world, in the book of life of the Lamb slain" (chap. 13:8).
It is impossible to get far in dealing with prophetic subjects without having recourse to that invaluable part of scripture named pre-eminently “The Revelation,” and which, although hasty and unbelieving men may say that it is impossible to be understood, is yet the only book of the Bible to the reading of which there is an exceptional blessing attached, “Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein” (1:3). From Daniel 9 it has been shown that a Roman prince fills an important place in the doings of the last days. But only in the Revelation do we get the full portrait of this remarkable character. In Revelation 17 is exhibited the judgment of Babylon the great, symbolized as a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast. This woman, “the great harlot,” is demonstrably the Papacy—but at present our purpose is not with her but with the beast that carries her. The angel-guide who exhibits and explains this vision to John, says, “I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, they whose name hath not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast, that it was, and is not, and shall be present. Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. And they are seven kings; the five are fallen, the one is, the other is yet to come, and when he cometh he must continue a little while. And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven, and he goeth into perdition” (vers. 7-11).
In the interpretation of these symbols there is one very clear mark. Rome has ever been famous as the “seven hilled city,” and the seven heads are here stated to mean seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. This symbol, therefore, identifies with Rome the beast which carries the woman. But the seven heads, besides furnishing clear topographical indication of Rome, also signify seven kings, i.e. seven different forms of government: five had been, one was, and the seventh was yet to come. Now in the apostle's time, Rome had had five forms of government, viz. kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, tribunes. The empire was that which existed in the time of John. That is the sixth; and the beast—the revived Roman empire—will be the seventh, yet counted as an eighth.
The greatness of ancient Rome is famous, and her decline and fall proverbial, but men are little aware that there is yet to be a revival of that empire on a scale of magnificence which will evoke the amazement of the world. “They that dwell upon the earth shall wonder, when they behold the beast that it was, and is not, and shall be present.” In that mystic phrase is prophetically condensed the history of the Roman Empire. Its resurrection will be contrary to any previous experience. Empires hitherto have gradually risen, attained their zenith and then fallen; but though the Roman Empire seems to have received a deadly wound, that wound is to be healed—and the new empire will be the seventh head—but so marvelous and distinct in character that it is counted an eighth. “I saw one of his heads wounded as it were to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast... and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him” (Revelation 13:3, 43And 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. 4And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (Revelation 13:3‑4))? Considering the far from leading position of Rome at present, surprise may be felt at the idea of her being once more the leader of the world. The explanation is found in the significant statement that the beast is “to come up out of the abyss” (17:8, already quoted). This is an index to a condition of the world of which men have hitherto had no experience. At the risk of digression, it may be well to trace this matter a little through scripture.
(To be continued)
[E. J. T.]