The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

tions stands on the feet of a bear, meaning by that that this period from Martin Luther onward was resting on thefoundation of the previous period, the dawn of the Reformation, but still through it all the voice was the same; itwas the voice of the old Babylon, the voice of pride and arrogance. Like the original Babylon the Great the fourgreat Church-State systems of the time stated that they were Christendom, etc., that Christ's kingdom was set upon the earth, though this is quite contrary to the Word of God, which asserts that the church should be under thepowers that be, and that the time when Christ shall reign is at the end of the times of the Gentiles, the end of the"seven times."You remember that Alexander the Great, when visiting Jerusalem, was received by the High Priest and others,and you remember the vision he had and how it was fulfilled. It was just the same with Luther. When heappeared before the Spiritual Israelites as a Reformer he was received by them. The four parts of Christendomclaimed to be Reformed Churches, the spiritual Jerusalem, although God recognized them still as Babylon theGreat.Now during the time of Babylon we know that Rome, the fourth empire, was in existence, but was a, veryfeeble power. In the time of Medo-Persia it was growing in strength; in the time of Greece it was still - stronger,and then the due time came when Greece was overthrown by Rome in 197 B. C.; at first peace was establishedbetween them, but shortly afterwards Greece was absorbed by Rome, and the conquests went on little by little.In the time of Julius Caesar great conquests were made, and the world was practically at the feet of Rome.Then, in the time of Caesar Augustus, the zenith of her power was reached. After that she began to diminish. Itwas during the time of the Roman Empire that our Lord Jesus Christ came, suffered and died and then wasresurrected. It was at that time that Israel was cast off, and it was in the year 70 A. D. that Israel was destroyedbecause the Israelites had fallen away from the faith.I understand, dear friends, that Rome, this ferocious animal with ten horns and iron teeth, represents the powerof the people. In the time of Babylon the Great the people had very little power. During the time of this periodfrom Avignon up to the time of Martin Luther their power was stronger; then after the time of Martin Luthertheir power increased much more because of the work Martin Luther had done. And in this leopard period thefour great church-state systems were quarreling among each other and not only allowing papacy to get stronger,but also allowing the power of the people to get stronger; eventually the Protestants and the Papists got intoconflict with each other and war broke out between them. This was called the "Thirty Years' War," because itlasted for the long period of thirty years - from 1618 to 1648 A. D. - with the result that the people werecompletely sickened of all religious differences, and the outcome of that was that the war was brought to an endby the peace of Westphalia in the year 1648. From that time onward religion ceased to be the dominant factor inpolitics in the Gentile powers, quite different from the preceding times, and the power of the people hasincreased more and more - the power of Rome, this ferocious animal.In the original Rome the power of the people was very much greater than in any of the other precedingkingdoms. "Vox populi" (the voice of the people) was the watchword of ancient Rome, but after the Papacygained its power it ceased to be true till the 17th century A. D. There is no doubt that the power of 'the peoplebegan to be manifest at that time. One of the first manifestations was in the year 1620, when a band of pilgrimssailed from England to this land, which is called the land of the free, the land of the people. By the middle of the17th century, immigration to this country had become steady; the power of the people was showing itself; theywere sick of the restriction of their liberty in Europe, and they wanted to assert themselves. A Century laterthere arose the great War of Independence, by which they threw off the fetters of Europe. Following theirexample, the people of France rose up in the year 1789 and overthrew the church state system of France. Therewas the power of the people asserting itself. The period of the French Revolution, the end of the power of thepapacy, corresponds to the time of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar made many conquests and added greatly to thepower of Rome, just as the people at the end of the eighteenth century made many conquests and added to their