#21 The Mark of the Beast, Part 4

from The Two Mysteries, by Samuel Froehlich

And St. John says that the false prophet, when the beast out of the earth appeared after the first beast, had given life to the image, so that the image of the beast also spoke but this image had only two horns like the lamb, or resembling the lamb. Those seven heads of the first beast are the seven sacraments which the Catholic church has regarded as the holiest of the Holy up to the time of the reformation and up to this very day. The seven heads overtop the body of orthodoxy, that is, the traditional church doctrine. To be sure, Tradition was dealt a mortal wound by the Reformation 300 years ago, and five of its seven heads were apparently cut off. The wound, however, which the beast received has not only healed again, the second beast out of the earth, or the false prophet, has even made an intelligent, speaking image of it, and this image is worshipped in the Protestant church just as the beast itself is worshipped in the Roman and the Greek church. The Protestants have in appearance rejected Tradition in order that they might establish themselves again on the word of God. They no longer regard Marriage, Confirmation, Ordination, Absolution and Extreme Unction as sacraments; they accept Baptism and Communion only as such and in consequence thereof, the second beast has only two horns, resembling those of the Lamb, but the language it uses is just as arrogant as the language of the dragon which gave the power, the throne and the great authority to the first beast. In fact, like phantoms, all those traditional sacraments (with the exception of the last, Chapter 13 verse 3) have been retained, not merely the infant baptism and the communion, but also confirmation, marriage, ordination and absolution, so that no one is able to live (to get on as a citizen) without conforming to them, and all those who do not worship the beast or its image are killed as a result. (Chapter 13 verses 8 and 16.) Although Christ originally introduced baptism and communion, baptism for the believers, communion for the saints, they are no longer used in the original manner in the established church (according to tradition) the other five have been added by men and, indeed, each one with the declaration: "Let him be cursed, who does not accept it as a sacrament." This is a name of blasphemy, since man-made decrees are raised to a position of divine authority, and curses are called down on those who do not believe and accept them as such. The Protestants deprive us of our human and our civic rights just on account of these human decrees, because with them the original Roman beast has been transformed into an image of the beast. Which ever way it is however whether the Roman church worships the beast with its seven heads and its ten horns, or whether the Protestants worship its image, the results are the same; and finally the false prophet has the same fate with the beast itself on which the great prostitute is sitting, that means without figurative speech: The established church with its faith and its worship is based on Tradition and not on the Word of God.

Who must not marvel as St. John did as he foresaw everything, in the Spirit, that was to happen? He could not express himself more plainly; but as the facts of later times have thrown light upon his words so the result justifies the truth of his prophecy. Now it is announced and made known to us so that everybody may renounce the idolatry of the established church according to the traditional form (First Peter 1 verse 18) and "become a convert to the living and true God, before the day of Christ comes," which burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, yea and all that do wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts; that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. (Malachi 4 verse 2)