Censoring Free Speech: a Page From the Papal Playbook
Bible prophecy speaks of the lamb-like beast of Revelation 13 making an image to the first beast of Revelation. A beast in Bible prophecy represents a kingdom – see Daniel 7 – raising the question of which kingdoms are represented by these two beasts.
The first, or leopard-like beast of Revelation 13, represents the Roman papacy, especially during the 1260 period from 538 AD to 1798 - see, for example, John Wycliffe at:
The lamb-like beast of Revelation 13 represents primarily the United States – it is the only globally dominant kingdom with world-wide significance arising after the 1798 year period and the deadly wound to the papacy (the overthrow of the papal state by Napolean Bonaparte 1 and capture and exile of Pope Pius VI). The lamb-like beast is said to arise from the earth. The United States arose from the land of the New World. The lamb-like characteristics of civil and religious liberty, and the recognition of the individual rights bestowed by the Creator on every human being, are the secrets of America’s great strength. It is this which has secured the blessings of Providence.
But Revelation 13 describes a sad deterioration in the lamb-like beast, and states that it will make an image to the persecuting papal beast, and then force all the earth to worship it.
What then would an image to the papal beast look like? To answer this question we must analyze the papal beast. What is it? What does it do? How does it function?
The papacy is a church-state power. The Pope, the head of the church, is also the head of state. The church, therefore, influences and controls the state. Bible prophecy predicts that at its end, America will be controlled by a religious power. But there is more.
The papacy abhors individual rights. Popes for centuries have railed against the concept of individual rights, and specifically liberty of individual conscience. According to the papacy, there is literally nothing worse for a nation than state recognition of the right to one’s own thoughts and beliefs, and the ability to share them. Pope Pius IX in his Encyclical Letter of August 15, 1854, said: “The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error--a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a state.”
One of the primary ways the papacy made war against liberty of conscience was the suppression of any and all written material which encouraged individual liberty of conscience. First on that list was the Bible, which the people were prohibited from having in their own languages for many centuries. Next was censorship of the Reformers and suppression of their work.
The Inquisition maintained a list of books which it had banned for centuries, specifically from 1560 to 1966. The purpose of this book was to suppress so-called “heresy”, much of which consisted of Biblical truth, just criticism of tyrannical popes and their legions of institutional minions, and the philosophical doctrines of liberty which built the western world. Foremost among these is the doctrine of liberty of conscience.
Since the papacy was, and still is, a tyrannical censoring power, and the lamb-like beast makes an image to the first beast, would it be reasonable to suspect that the American government will begin to censor and suppress free speech? The answer is yes. The Bible prophesies this very thing.
It has been repeatedly evidenced that the White House was directly involved in the suppression of free speech on social media platforms, and that multiple federal agencies were involved in a national, and even global effort, to suppress the truth about lockdowns, Covid vaccines, and a number of other subjects. In other words, America has repeatedly taken concerted and intentional steps to overthrow the First Amendment free speech rights of its own citizens through collusion with social media companies.
It is expected that tyrannical powers like China and Venezuela will suppress the free speech of their citizens. These countries never have spoken like a lamb – they have always been tyrannical, and they will doubtless remain so. However, America was built on better and more noble and virtuous principles. And that is why its change from being a protector of liberty to an antagonist of liberty is worth sorrowing over, and notably prophetic.
The following video excerpts speak for themselves.
