Signs of the Image to the Beast

According to Revelation 13, the United States of America, under the influence of apostate protestantism and the papacy, will form an image to the beast, becoming like the papacy in character. We can see the image to the beast forming, as our Constitution is repudiated in action after action; as the state takes ever more control of our lives, down to every last detail.

"In order for the United States to form an image of the beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the State will also be employed by the church to accomplish her own ends."  GC 443.

No where is this process more apparent that in the rapid dissolution of freedom of the press.  George Seldes was the leading observer and critic of American journalism in the 20th century.  Of his 21 books, seven deal with freedom of the press. Seldes stated, "This pressure [of the Catholic Church on American journalism] is one of the most important forces in American life, and the only one about which secrecy is generally maintained, no newspaper being brave enough to discuss it, although all fear it and believe that the problem should be dragged into the open and made publicly known."

A look at recent developments:

 "Discussions underway at the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission point toward a dangerous new effort to regulate what Americans read and hear. The takeover under discussion would apply across the board to print media, radio and television, and the internet. The result of proposed regulations would be nothing less than an end to free speech in America."  Source

In a groundbreaking new book, Shut Up, America!: The End of Free Speech, Brad O'Leary exposes the agenda and the strategy behind a new plan. "It won't be called 'the Fairness Doctrine' this time. But it will have the same effect -- or worse. Brad O'Leary lays out the plan -- how Congress and the president will rationalize the changes using the language of 'diversity' and 'fairness' and 'tolerance.' He also addresses how the impending legislation and regulations will doubly impact Christian talk radio -- and eventually every other form of communication in America. This is about power and silencing all meaningful opposition."  Source

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch recently told the Wall Street Journal:  "The prospect of the U.S. government becoming directlty involved in commercial journalism ought to be chilling for anyone who cares about freedom if speech."

"The federal government would have 'absolute power' to shut down the Internet under the terms of a new US Senate bill being pushed by Joe Lieberman, legislation which would hand President Obama a figurative 'kill switch' to seize control of the world wide web in response to a Homeland Security directive."  Source 



The Obama administration "shut down the WordPress host of 73,000 blogs this week, citing 'abuses.'  Since when, in a free society, does the government have the authority to shut down the free speech/communication of its citizens?"  Source   "This is causing high anxiety over the possibility it is the beginning of a wider crackdown, since a free blogging platform has been taken down by its hosting provider on orders from the U.S. authorities on grounds of 'a history of abuse'. More than 73,000 blogs are out of action as a result. Some folks are asking why all 73,000 were removed from the Internet.' Their 'testing the waters' worked. Soon they will shut down anyone they deem a problem."  Source

"These examples all point to a deadly disturbing fact--not only is the United States of America headed toward the Orwellian nightmare of tyranny but, in fact, we are already there."   Source 

The foregoing are just a few examples of fast fulfilling prophecy and the emergence of the image of the beast.  "Already preparations are advancing, and movements are in progress, which will result in making an image to the beast. Events will be brought about in the earth's history that will fulfill the predictions of prophecy for these last days." RH April 23, 1889.

Some history on the influence of the papacy on the American press:

"By 1870, the principles of the French Revolution (1848), which included freedom of the press, had brought the Catholic Church to its knees. Newspapers everywhere were conveying the truth about Catholicism. Indeed, unrestricted journalism of the time was a major cause for the drive to adopt the principle of infallibility. According to Hasler, the Infallibilist Party 'wanted to employ the infallible pope to contain the forces of unbridled journalism.'  On May 25, 1870, the newspaper Unita Cattolica, which supported adoption of the principle of infallibility, wrote, 'The infallible pope must counteract and cure the prevailing abuses of unbridled freedom of the press, thanks to which journalists daily spread lies and calumny. Every day the pope can teach, condemn, and define dogma and Catholics will never be permitted to question his decisions.'



With the adoption of the principle of infallibility by Pius IX and freedom of the press branded intrinsically evil by him, the Church immediately set out to 'bridle' the press. In the United States, the Knights of Columbus was created in 1882 to organize the Catholic laity into a tightly controlled and responsive machine. By 1914 the Knights of Columbus had evolved into a national organization capable of intimidating anyone who criticized the Church in any way. During the period from August 1914 to January 17, 1917, the Knights succeeded, according to their own report, in shutting down 60 of the 62 or 63 newspapers in the United States that published news critical of the Catholic Church. And they bragged about it."

Seldes quotes Heywood Broun, "And still more precarious is the position of the New York newspaper man who ventures any criticism of the Catholic Church. There is not a single New York editor who does not live in mortal terror of the power of this group."

In 1949, Paul Blanshard reported on his extensive study of Catholic censorship and boycott in a book, American Freedom and Catholic Power. He found that, "The censorship system of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States is neither a spasmodic nor an intermittent phenomenon. It is a highly organized system of cultural and moral controls that applies not only to books, plays, magazines and motion pictures, but to persons and places....[The Church] holds the power of economic life and death over many authors, publishers and producers who must rely upon American Catholics for patronage and support."

Blanshard concludes, "The machinery that the Church uses in the United States to enforce its boycott of unfriendly literature is quite elaborate....Non-Catholic publishers who print criticism of Catholic policy are threatened with boycotts and flooded with very unpleasant letters of protest. As a result of this type of pressure scarcely any publishers in the United States will even consider any manuscript that might expose them...to Catholic boycott."   Source

Many Americans "do not see that if a Protestant government sacrifices the principles that have made them a free, independent nation, and through legislation brings into the Constitution principles that will propagate papal falsehood and papal delusion, they are plunging into the Roman horrors of the Dark Ages."  RH Extra, Dec. 11, 1888.

All of this is leading right up to the enforcement of Sunday as a national day of rest. "Stealthily and unsuspectedly [the papacy] is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike."  GC 581.  "Soon the Sunday laws will be enforced, and men in positions of trust will be embittered against the little handful of God's commandment-keeping people."  4MR 278 (1909).  "Protestants will throw their whole influence and strength on the side of the papacy. By a national act enforcing the false sabbath they will give life and vigor to the corrupt faith of Rome, reviving her tyranny and oppression of conscience."  Mar 179 (1893).

"In the events now taking place is seen a rapid advance toward the fulfillment of the prediction."  GC 580.