I can't remember any Adventist publication or minister commenting on the meaning of the two horns of this beast but I would guesss that someone at some time offered an opinion or has one now.

Well, Mark, maybe you should begin by sharing your own thoughts.

At the moment I have forgotten, but I have heard it although it is many years ago. I may even have preached on it myself.

It seems like we followed Uriah Smith - and I do not have his book any more. I gave most of my books away when I retired. Somewhere I may have those old sermon notes. Don't the two horns stand for democracy and religious freedom?

You're right Johann. After I posted that I looked at Smith's treatment of the passage and he says since the horns have no crowns they represents 1) a state with no king - a republic, and 2) a church with no pope - religious freedom.

That's good, but the little horn of Daniel 7 has no crown on its horn either, and it is the pope.

So how about this: The two horns probably represent the two main political powers in the anglophone alliance - and at this point in time the most likely candidates are the US and the UK. This beast comes up out of the earth, and so there is no problem making the connection to the US. For the UK, much of it's strength historically is also due to the colonies that it planted around the world. The Commonwealth is still a force to be reckoned with.

most of our pioneers were from the United States. Is that why they looked at the beast as representing the United States excluding Canada?

I and personally happy that Canada is excluded.

Based on EGW, not Smith, 2 horns = Republicanism and Protestantism.



Canada may not be the beast, but sitting next to the beast is not an enviable position. When the dragon speaks, Canada will be one of the first to hear.

Lambs "horns" are only little nubs where the horns will someday be when the lamb grows into a sheep. They are harmless, indicating the meakness and mildness of Jesus, the only lamb in Revelation.

The three beasts are set up in contrast to the three angels. The three beasts are the three aspects of the trinity, but where the three aspects are not oned as they are in the trinity. They are either the aspects of the trinity working independently, or cooperating only for their own selfish purposes.

The dragon represents Satan and demonic powers working directly and Mrs. White applys them to Spiritualism. She then defines spiritualism as the idea of "live as you please for heaven is your home" and where self is the final authority. This is the work of the Holy Spirit working on our subjective, but instead of leading to a definate truth, the individual's expirence becomes the final authority. The power of the will is distroyed as feelings end up controling the individual.

The beast represents the job of God the Father, the throne of God, the final authority. but the beast does not work with the Holy Spirit of helping people where they are as God the Father does. Instead the beast will lay down the law and expect blind obedience. It also distroys the will as it does not give us the power to think and choose and do, but another makes the decisions for us and we blindly follow. So the beast is any organized group or individual we allow to replace God in our lives. This is any time durring the 7 periods of history: (1)Babylon, (2)Medio-Persia, (3)Greece, (4)Rome, (5)the Holy Roman Empire (thus we can make the applications and learn lessons from the Papacy)(6)the deadly wound (no world empire, but the crowns are on the horns, individual kings and independent nations) and (7) the deadly wound healed, which Revelation 13: 17 and Revelation 18 pictures as an economic power with the world united by economic cooperation.

The lamblike beast represents the job of Jesus, the personal aspect of God. But here instead of again leading us where we are towards truth, it is individuals who end up choosing to either follow the dragon or the beast. The dragon and the beast are the two ditches that satan uses to distry our will power. One says there is no truth except for what your own expirence says is true, and your truth may be different from another's truth. The other says "There is definate truth, I'll tell you what it is and you better shape up or else! Don't question, just obey."

Too often we feel that we need to go towards either one or the other. At the end of time the dragon and beast will work together by Satan telling us that we can serve our selfish interest by following the world state.

The application to the United States is a wonderful applicaiton. Unlike other nations that start out with the king/beast, or spiritualism (French Revelution) the US started out wanting to have people go towards God, but recognized that we are at different stages of growth, as well as the right to be wrong, and it would offer us a republican and protestant form of government. But we are finding it in the process of transforming from being a country of the people and for the people, into a country that is serving the multi-national corporations, or the merchants of the earth, and getting the whole world to submit to the merchants of the earth.

You're right to point out the dual economic/political nature of the final stages of the lamb-like beast Kevin. But what about the horns. You observed that the horns of a lamb are little nubs at first. But this lamb matures into a dragon and it seems reasonable to make the projection that the horns grow and mature as well.

Regarding Canada and Austrialia, in general both countries mirror the UK and the US in their foreign policy.

Protestants and religious freedom - how long? It seems like the previous pope's main "grudge" with Adventism was not so much that we coined him anti-christ, but that we grant each individual liberty to chose themselves if they want to be saved or not.

EGW has something to say about religions freedom at the very end - seeming just as important as the question of the Sabbath.