Part 17 (2/2)
This is plainly the picture presented by the prophet, as we look again, observing details more closely.
The prophet beheld the division of the Roman Empire into lesser kingdoms. Then, springing up among these kingdoms, he saw the little-horn power subduing three of the ten kingdoms, speaking great words, and making war with the saints of G.o.d. It was to be a religious power, then, ruling among the kings of the earth, and a.s.serting religious dominion over the faith and consciences of men. ”The same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE INVASION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE BY THE HUNS
”We see the barbarian peoples of the North sweeping down upon the empire, breaking it up, and establis.h.i.+ng within its boundaries the various kingdoms that are to this day represented by the kingdoms of Western Europe.”--_Page 127._]
We look to history, and this is what plainly appears:
We see, as described in the prophecy, a time when ten contemporaneous kingdoms filled the territory of the original Western Empire. Just there we see an ecclesiastical kingly power rise to religious supremacy--the Roman Papacy. We see, through its influence, three of the ten kingdoms overthrown, ”plucked up by the roots”--three Arian or heretical kingdoms. And as we watch the history, we find this power making ”war with the saints” and prevailing against them through long ages.
A Roman Catholic writer describes it in a paragraph:
”Long ages ago, when Rome through the neglect of the Western emperors was left to the mercy of the barbarous hordes, the Romans turned to one figure for aid and protection, and asked him to rule them; and thus, in this simple manner, the best t.i.tle of all to kingly right, commenced the temporal sovereignty of the popes. And meekly stepping to the throne of Caesar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the emperors and kings of Europe were to bow in reverence through so many ages.”--_Rev. James P. Conroy, in American Catholic Quarterly Review, April, 1911._
Yet again we look at the picture presented in prophecy. Then we turn to history; and precisely where and when the prophet saw the ”little horn”
coming up, we see the Roman Papacy rising to supremacy. We see this ecclesiastical power wielding a kingly scepter among the kingdoms of divided Rome, exalting itself above them, with a look ”more stout than his fellows.” We hear it speaking great words, and we see it carrying on warfare against the saints.
Clearly, there was no other power in history, rising at that time and in that place, which suggests the slightest correspondence to the prophecy.
In every detail the Roman Papacy does correspond to it.
The prophetic outline has brought us to the rise of the great apostasy, so fully dealt with in the New Testament prophecy; but there are further specifications in this prophecy of the seventh of Daniel which demand brief study.
[Ill.u.s.tration: RAISING THE SIEGE OF ROME, A.D. 538
The crus.h.i.+ng defeat of the Goths by the armies of Justinian, who placed Vigilius in the papal chair under the military protection of his famous general, Belisarius.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: ST. PETER'S AND THE VATICAN
The magnificent headquarters of the papal system.]
THE 1260 YEARS OF DANIEL'S PROPHECY
Compressed into forty-four words, the age-long story of the workings of the Roman Papacy is thus told by the angel who interpreted Daniel's vision of the little horn:
”He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Dan. 7:25.
The spirit of this apostasy was abroad in apostolic days. ”The mystery of iniquity doth already work,” said the apostle Paul. 2 Thess. 2:7. And this power is to continue to work until the end, when it will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming. Verse 8.
A Prophetic Period
But according to the word of the angel to Daniel, there was to be a period during which, in a special sense, the Papacy was to hold supremacy over the saints and the times and the laws of the Most High.
”They shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” In the Scriptures the word ”time,” used in this manner, means a year: ”at the end of times, even years.” Dan. 11:13, margin. Therefore a time (one year) and times (two years) and the dividing of time (half a year) means three years and a half. The same period is mentioned twice in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, once (verse 14) as ”a time, and times, and half a time,” and again (verse 6) as ”a thousand two hundred and threescore days.”
<script>