These points prove identity.  To quote the words of a certain expositor:  “When we have in prophecy two symbols ... representing powers that come upon the stage of action at the same time, occupy the same territory, maintain the same character, do the same work, exist the same length of time, and meet the same fate, those symbols represent the same identical power.”  To this all must agree.  Hence we have in the vision before us a description of Papal Rome in her two-fold character as a temporal and a religious power.  The wounding and healing of the head of the beast will be explained in chapter XVII.

How the same heads and horns can serve both the dragon and the leopard beast will be better understood later.  For the present it will be sufficient to state that it is because they are the same beast in reality, being clothed, in its later form, in a Christian garb, instead of the worn-out garments of infidelity or heathenism possessed by the former.  This transfer is expressed in the following words:  “And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”  Verse 2.  This beast, then, succeeded to the dominion held by the dragon.  It was like an old, established firm retiring and giving its standing and credit and well-earned reputation to a new partnership, to conduct a similar business.

While this beast, as before observed, represents the developed religious and political power of the Papacy combined, still the actions ascribed to it show plainly that it is in its character as an ecclesiastical beast that its terrible features are here delineated.  No one would suppose that a mere political power would set itself up as an object to be worshiped, exalting itself above the God of heaven, and then single out and slaughter the saints for not complying therewith.  As far as rendering obedience to civil governments is concerned, the Christians of all ages have been the most peaceful and obedient servants of all.  So we shall hereafter refer always to the beast as an ecclesiastical power, unless otherwise stated.

This beast all the world admired.  “And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast:  and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” The people worshiped the established hierarchy, and they also worshiped the dragon from which the beast obtained so much of his power.  The expression “worshiped the dragon” shows plainly that it is the dragon as a religious system that is referred to, and not the old civil empire.  How, then, could the old heathen worship be perpetuated in the church of Rome and form a part of her religious services?  By adopting rites and ceremonies purely Pagan in their origin.  Since I have already stated that the beast and the dragon as temporal powers were about the same in reality, except the change of sovereignty from the heads to the horns, it will now be necessary to show the remarkable similarity in spirit that existed between them as religious powers, the one being the successor of the other.