The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1918-09-06

of the word. Its purpose is to en-
courage faith amid trial, to recall
apostates (back-sliders), to guard
readers against the influence of for
eign thot and life, and to counteract
heretical tendencies within the flock.
The situation and message of Rev.
are those of apocalypse and not those
of prophecy.
1t follows then that the value of
Rev. lies not in prophecy. The book
has its imperishable religious worth
because of the energy Of faith that
finds expression in it, the splendid
certainty of its conviction that Gods
cause remains always the best and
is one with the cause of Jesus Christ;
but it is both unreasonable and vicious
to treat the details of its phantasies
as an authentic source for a history
of the past or the future. This is
the central attitude of all the noted
scholars of the present.
Coming now to the question of
beasts, there are two inescapable con-
victions which come when one makes
some research into the question. The
first of these is that no one knows
exactly what is meant by the symbols
of the beasts. No two great scholars
agree in their interpretations. The
writer used such medley of ira
dition and of myth, that we cannot
know positively what he did mean.
The second conviction is that for the
layman, the book contains but very
little religious value. 1t is not neces-
sary for every Christian to be able
to interpret Rev. If so,all Christians
would be lost; for none can interpret
it positively. Beware of any naive
solutions to the problem.
Now for the general interpretations
The dragon of Chap. IL must be ex-
planned first. According to the
general concensus of scholars it is
the Roman Empire; Rome as a
physical and temporal empire. The
woman here is Isreal, the mother of
Jesus.
The first beast of Chap. 13 (Verses
1-10) is, according to modern scholar
ship, the political power of Rome;
more definitely the Emperors of Rome
In verse 8 we read that one Of the
heads seemed to have been smitten-
ed unto death, but that its deadly
wound was healed. This very plain
ly refers to the Emperor Nero, who
had been killed. But from the
very time of his death it be-
came a tradition that Nero was
not killed, that he still lived and that
he would return again, and with
allied Kings take Rome. He is con-
sidered to be immortal, therefore the
whole world wondered after the
beast"
We here get into another very COM
plicated affair; viz: Roman religion,
and in this case Roman Emperor
Worship. AS soon as Nero, the En-
peror, was dead, his successor estab-
lished him a God, and ordered ~the
people to worship the departed En-
peror. This is what was done in the
case of Nero. "And they worshipped
the beast" So, to be very brief, the
first beast is the Roman Government
with its Emperors and Emperor Wor-
ship.
We come now to the second beast,
and this is the one which has been
more abused than any other symbol
in the whole bible. Martin Luther
saw in it a sand-spike to use against
the Roman church. 1t has been call
ed the Kaiser by speudo-bible teach
ers. And at present small group
of ignoramuses think this beast to be
our own United States. | will give
the general result of the study of
men who have spent their whole lives
in this field. First of all, not one Of
them see in it the Roman Catholic
church. The main difference between
the Roman church and the Protestant
church is that the Roman church is
autocratic in both ecclesiastical and
spiritual affairs. 1t claims to be in
fallible in things related to both
affairs. 1t is great institution
which was centuries in developing,
and which, according to my Protes-
tant view made sacred a great deal
of tradition, which we Protestants
have tried to throw away. The
Protestant church differs primarily
in that we are more democratic in
ecclesiastical and spiritual affairs.
But instead of claiming the church to
be infallible we have made the Bible
infallible. These are the main
points of difference.
First of all l will tell what this
second beast is NOT. 1t is not the
Kaiser of Germany. 1t is not the