Part 11 (1/2)

2. They speak great things and blasphemies (Dan. 7:8, 20; Rev. 13:5).

3. Both are persecuting powers making war on the saints (Dan. 7:21; Rev. 13:7).

4. The chronology of each shows that the power rose to prominence about the time of the cessation of the pagan Roman Empire.

5. The length of time during which they were to continue is the same--forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days.

6. Both are to be gradually but finally destroyed (Dan. 7:26; Rev.

13:10).

These powers, then, appear at the same time, in the same territory, have the same character, do the same work, continue the same length of time, and meet the same fate. _These facts prove ident.i.ty._ We have, therefore, positive proof drawn from the parallel prophecies in Daniel that the first beast of Revelation 13 signifies the politico-religious system of Rome.

[Sidenote: Length of papal reign]

The identification of the little horn of Daniel 7 with the leopard-beast of Revelation 13 is now complete. That both apply to the papacy has been conclusively shown. We shall now turn our attention to the length of time that this power was to reign. Daniel limits the triumph of the little horn to ”a time and times and the dividing of time” (Dan. 7:25). ”Time,” in the singular, of course, signifies one time. ”Times,” plural, without a designating number, signifies two times. ”The dividing of time” is rendered in chapter 12:7, also in both texts in the Revised Version, ”a half.” So the entire period is three and a half times.

The seven-year period of Nebuchadnezzar's insanity is described as seven _times_ (chap. 4:25). We therefore conclude that the period of three and a half times signifies three and a half years. This agrees with the reign of the leopard beast of Revelation 13, namely, ”forty and two months” (verse 5), or according to the Jewish method of computing time--thirty days to the month--twelve hundred and sixty days. Notice that this also agrees both in the manner of statement and in point of duration with the flight of the woman into the wilderness, as described in Revelation 12. She was to be nourished for ”a time, and times, and half a time” (verse 14), which period is spoken of in verse 6 of the same chapter as ”a thousand two hundred and threescore days.”

The terms ordinarily used to measure the duration of time may be and often are used in a symbolic sense; for time, as well as anything else, can be symbolized. Thus days may properly symbolize years; for they are a.n.a.logous periods of time, the diurnal revolution of the earth being taken to represent the earth's annual movement. Other standards of reckoning may also be employed symbolically, but the one here referred to is doubtless most frequently employed. Such a system of reckoning time was known anciently. The Mosaic law recognized two kinds of weeks, the first of seven days' duration, the last day of which was a Sabbath; another week of seven years' duration, the last year being a Sabbath of rest for the land. This fact explains such expressions as ”forty days, _each day for a year_” (Num. 14:34), and ”I have appointed thee each day for a year” (Ezek. 4:6).

There is no doubt that the year-day method of computing time is used in the prophecy of Daniel 9, the sixty-nine _weeks_ reaching from the time of the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C. until A.D. 26, the year when Christ was baptized and entered on his personal ministry.

[Sidenote: The correct starting-point]

Applying the year-day standard to the period of twelve hundred and sixty days, we have twelve hundred and sixty years. The next question to arise is, What date shall we select as the proper time from which to measure this 1,260-year period? It is important that we correctly solve this question. Expositors have selected different dates. They usually point out some particular historical date having an important bearing on Rome's development; as, for example, A.D. 606, when Phocas, Emperor of the East, accorded the Church of Rome special recognition.

But the papacy grew up in the _West_. If we are to regard as of unusual importance political recognition of the claims of the papacy, why not give preference to imperial recognition in the very section that const.i.tuted the home of the papacy?

Before considering further the relation of the growing papacy to the imperial power in the Western Empire, I must call attention to an important fact generally overlooked or disregarded by expositors.

The 1,260-year period not only marks the time of triumph by the beast-power, but also _measures the period during which the woman, or true church, was to be secluded in the wilderness_. Two parallel lines of prophetic truth--respecting the true church and a false church--are therefore set forth as coexistent and in contrast with each other.

The correct starting-stake can not, therefore, be when the papacy had obtained complete ascendency, for this would be too late to consistently begin to measure the decayed state of the true church.

The date selected must be consistent with both lines of prophecy.

The apostasy did not take place suddenly, however, but was a gradual decline, a ”falling away”; and the papacy, on the other hand, did not rise to great power suddenly, but grew up by degrees. It was at first ”a little horn,” but finally his ”look was more stout than his fellows.” Paul says that the ”mystery of iniquity”--the seed of apostasy--was already working in his day and that later ”that Wicked”

should be revealed in all its terrible features (see 2 Thess. 2:3-8).

We therefore have to deal with a sliding-scale, a gradual decline on the part of the true church, and a constant increase of that false, apostate power which finally culminated in the full-grown papacy.

Bearing in mind that the 1,260-year period measures both phases, we are obliged to select for our beginning a time about half way between both extremes, a time when, we might say, the ”falling away” from the pure apostolic truth and standard was about half completed and when the papacy was about half developed. While the woman was secluded in the wilderness, the beast-power occupied the public view; and this was exactly the reverse of apostolic times, when the woman was exalted above all and before all, ”clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” In other words, the extreme of darkest night succeeded the light of glorious day.

The period of the first apostles was the period of the church's purity and triumph. In their hands the cause was safe and the pure truth shown forth in beauty and power. But with the close of the apostolic era, the apostasy came on at a rapid rate, as the extant writings of the early church fathers show.

By the middle of the fifth century the light of the gospel was eclipsed in the darkness of Romanism. During this century the papacy secured political recognition of its claims to direct jurisdiction over all churches. This occurred during the pontificate of Leo I, who, because of his success in furthering the interests of the popedom, shares alone with Pope Gregory the t.i.tle of ”the Great.” To quote from the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Leo ”entered upon a pontificate which was to be epoch-making for the centralization of the government of the church.” Political causes combined to advance the claims of the papacy to universal recognition. Attila, with his fierce barbarians, invaded Italy and laid waste many of her fairest provinces and then advanced boldly on Rome, whereupon Pope Leo went out to the camp of the invaders and secured the evacuation of Italy. The pope obtained the full support of Valentinian III. In 445 Leo enforced authority in the distant patriarchate of Alexandria. In 444-446 he was in conflict with the Illyrian bishops. During this time in a letter addressed to them he laid down the principle that St. Peter had received the primacy and oversight of the whole church and that hence all important matters must be referred to and decided by Rome. He also proceeded to extend his authority over Gaul. In this effort he obtained from Valentinian III the famous decree of June 6, 445, which ”recognized the primacy of the Pope of Rome based on the merits of Peter, the dignity of the city, and the decrees of Nice (in their interpolated form); ordained that any opposition to this rulings, which were to _have the force of law_, should be treated as treason; and provided for the forcible extradition by provincial governors of any one who refused to answer a summons to Rome.”

The apostle John was banished to the Isle of Patmos in 95. Regarding that date as the close of the pure apostolic era, and 445, when the pope received from the emperor of the West official recognition of his claims to universal supremacy in the church, as representing one other extreme, we have but to calculate the time half way between these extremes to find the consistent starting-stake for the beginning of that time prophecy which is to measure both lines of prophetic truth.

From 95 to 445 is a period of 350 years. Half of this period is 175 years. Therefore 175 years after 95, or 270, is the correct starting-point.

Protestant church historians recognize the decline that came in the early church. Many of them, as D'Aubigne, Marsh, Rutter, Waddington, and others, point to the third century, or the latter half of the third century, as marking an unusual epoch in this declension. Others, however, who view things almost wholly from the external point of view, regard the accession of Constantine in the early part of the following century as marking the important epoch. With reference to this subject, I quote Joseph Milner, the English ecclesiastical historian: ”I know it is common for authors to represent the declension of Christianity to have taken place only after its external establishment under Constantine. But the events of history have compelled me to dissent from this view of things.”--Ch. Hist., Cent.

IV, Chap. I.