41. John the Revelator prophesied
the loss of the Priesthood, and the apostacy of the Church, by some of those
magnificently eloquent symbols so often used to inform the faithful, without
imparting knowledge to unbelievers.
42. The Church is represented as a
woman, clothed with the sun, the fountain of natural light; because the Church
is clothed in the light of God’s revealed word, and having the moon under her
feet, because not guided by reflected light, or mere human wisdom. In respect
to the Apostolick missions, the chief means of establishing and extending her dominion,
she is represented with a crown of twelve stars. (Rev. xii, 1.)
43. This woman is about to be
delivered of a child, who shall rule the nations; a power which pertains to the
highest order of Priesthood; and a great red dragon stands ready to devour this
child as soon as it is born; but the child was caught up to heaven, and thus
preserved; that is, in plain, unsymbolical language, that Priesthood which
shall rule the nations with a rod of iron, or an iron sceptre, was removed from
earth, and taken up to God (Rev. xii, 2, 3, 5.)
44. The woman flees from the
dragon into the wilderness, where, instead of being nourished from the presence
of the Redeemer, with the waters of life, as she ought, being his wife, she is
nourished from the fact of the serpent (Rev. xii, 14,) while the dragon went to
make war with the rest of the children born of the woman; that is, the rest of
the Priesthood, which God had raised up in the Church. (id. 17.)
45. In this persecution, the
Saints were quite overcome, and all power over all kindreds, tongues and nations,
passed into the hands of a ruler, represented as a terrible beast, which had
already received the power of the dragon, and all who have not already had
their names written in the Book of Life, go after and worship this beast; so
that under his reign, no more become Saints; no new Priests could be raised up
to fill the places of the dying, and a single generation made an end of the
true Priesthood. (Rev. xiii, 7)
46. It is difficult to read these
symbolical prophesies, without seeing that the Pagan Roman Empire was the
dragon; that the Emperour Constantine was the serpent which nourished the
woman, and therefore, substantially the serpent and dragon were the same power;
and, that the beast was Papal Rome, the same thing, with a changed form, and a
new name. Papal having grown out of, and received its power from Pagan Rome.
47. It is curious, therefore, that
the next which is seen of this woman, she is mounted on a scarlet colored beast,
(corresponding with the dragon in colour,) full of names of blasphemy, no
longer clothed with the sun, or the light of God’s word, but with purple, and
scarlet, and gold, and precious stones, and pearls, which Constantine and his
successors bestowed on her, when he nourished her with the spoils of Heathen
Temples, and the riches of his Empire. (Rev. xvii, 3, 4.)
48. She now, in this new
character, carries a cup full of abominations, and filthiness of her fornication,
and has the name written upon her forehead, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the
Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth.” (Rev. xvii, 4, 5.) She is
now called a whore, (id. 1,) because, having been (in the symbolical sense) the
married wife of Christ, this woman (now destitute of all Priesthood or
authority from God) has given herself to the embraces of Gentile Kings, and
receives her support from the countenance of ungodly and usurping Emperours.
49. This being the Protestant view
of this prophecy so far, how blind are they, not to see that, having sprung
from her, they are the harlots, her daughters; being distinguished from her by
the fact that as they were never married to Christ, their prostitution in an
unlawful union with the Kings of the earth, makes them, not whores, but
harlots. Most aptly do these symbols apply to those Churches which were
separated from Rome as a matter of State policy, produced of whoredoms, and
incestuously prostituted to the corruptions, vices and tyrannies of the States
which produced them. (James J. Strang, The Book of the Law of the Lord,
Being a Translation from the Egyptian of the Law Given to Moses in Sinai, with
Numerous and Valuable Notes [Burlington, Wis.: Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints, 1991], 239-41)
