Revelation 13:15

And it was given unto him to give breath to it, even to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as should not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And it was given to him to give breath to it ... Yes indeed! That little thumbnail image of a worldwide empire is very much alive, and it carries an incredible clout with every national government on earth, even our own. This is not a reference to some clown of a pagan priest pulling some kind of a shenanigan to make a crass literal statue utter a few words. No! The deception in view in this passage deceived the whole world.

The image should speak ... First, there was the relevance of this for John's generation. The pagan temples were full of idols that, by various ingenious devices were made to speak, the purpose of the perpetrators of such deceptions being that of compelling Christians to worship the image of Caesar; and all of the scholars stress this; but that is certainly not all that this passage means. If so, Revelation, in large part, is irrelevant to this age, a proposition which we cannot accept. What is the "speaking image" today? Tune in any of the papal encyclicals broadcast on world radio and TV regarding economics, politics, morals, etc. But this "image," the little copy of the big state, is itself worshipped.

As many as should not worship the image should be killed ... The first application of this was the sentence of death executed upon Christians who would not worship Caesar's image; but the relevance of this did not perish with the Edict of Theodosius banning paganism. The relevance of it to the martyrs of the Middle Ages was that the persons who would not bow before the rules of the papacy were put to death, a fact well attested by the long bloody record of the Medieval Church which slaughtered thousands who would not worship them and their little image of the beast, with its "Throne of St. Peter," and its universal apparatus culminating in the Spanish Inquisition and a hundred other horrors. That is all prophesied in this verse whether some scholars are able to see it or not!