1,260 days. 1,260 years. A prophecy expanding so many, many years. Yet, the prophecy was closed up until the right time. Closed up and not ready to be understood. We can look back over those 1,260 years that had to take place, but during that time they could not comprehend.
The time of the end, and that means the time of the end's beginning. Yes, ends have beginnings or how else would they begin? We can understand this in a lot of ways. The end of the test comes when you get close to the last questions, you know you are nearing the end and can even say the time of the end has started. You are in the last stretch. Just as the 1260 year prophecy took that long, the end will also take time- how much, only God knows. We'd do well to accept that time to our Heavenly Father is not like time is for us by any means. This is where FAITH comes in. This is where our finite, creature status must be realized beyond doubt.
God has allowed us insight toward our future, the future of mankind, not just the future of us as individuals, but as an entire human race. Our arrogance stands in the way of our ability to comprehend as the whole of the human race. Our comprehension comes individually.
We are saved individually, not as a whole group of people. Our individual ability to understand involves a choice made by each and every person. I can't make that choice for anyone else, and no one else can make that choice for me.
If we allow our own self-serving superiority to delude us, it is no one's fault but our own. If we look upon ourselves as being too important to allow ourselves to be a creature serving a Creator, we will reap the consequences of that decision.
God has guided us, God has given us proof beyond doubt, now let's continue to study this truth in great detail so we are not deceived. Make the choice to believe, to have faith, and all the comprehension we need will come.
God help us, please, Creator, help us creatures who you made. Help us to be Yours, to serve You in love, now and always.
All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and forever Amen!!!!!!!
*******
CHAPTER XII. THE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND THREESCORE DAYS
It has been shown that a day, in prophecy, is counted for a year; and that the time and times and half a time of Dan. 7:25 are 1260 years. These were the years marked for the supremacy of the little horn, the papacy, during which it had power to wear out the saints of the Most High. The same time is marked in Revelation 12, as the period during which the dragon persecuted the woman, the Christian church, who fled into the wilderness. But the dragon may be said to do much of his work by proxy, for he gave his power and seat to the seven-headed and ten-horned beast, who also persecuted the saints, and prevailed forty and two months. Here are forty-two multiplied by thirty--the number of days in a month--making the same number of 1260 days, or years.
This beast, which has all the main features of all the beasts of Daniel 7, receiving the dominion which they successively held, is identical with the little horn of that chapter. That rose up among the kingdoms that were founded on the ruins of the Roman Empire, and so did this beast. Their locality is the same; the extent of their dominion the same; their work of blasphemy and persecution the same; the period of their supremacy the same.
Rev. 13:3. "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed."
In the prophecy of Rev. 1:10, we must be careful to guard against an error into which many fall in the interpretation of prophecy,--we must not imbibe the idea that events are always recorded in the order of their fulfillment. Notice the case of the two-horned beast in verses 11-17 of this chapter.
1. In verse 4, the climax is reached--speaking like a dragon--at once, before the history is given.
But in tracing its history, we shall find that it is fulfilled near the close of the prophecy.
2. In regard to the wonders, verses 13, 14, the climax, fire coming down from Heaven, is the first thing mentioned; after that the general facts are given.
3. In verses 15-17, another climax is recorded at the very beginning of the account of its persecutions; the decree to put the saints to death is mentioned before that concerning buying and selling, while in the fulfillment it must come after.
This order is very common in the prophecies.
And so in verses 1-10. Verse 2 mentions the beast receiving power from the dragon; verse 3 mentions its receiving a deadly wound, and the healing of the wound. And then follows its general history, including its triumphant work of 1260 years. Now, in point of fact, or in the fulfillment, verse 3 stands closely related to verse 10.
It must be evident to everyone who carefully examines this prophecy, that the receiving and the healing of the deadly wound have their fulfillment near the close of its existence. Verse 4--"They worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast," etc.--naturally follows verse 2, where the dragon is said to give him that power. This was fulfilled when the dragon gave his power to the beast, at least fulfilled in part. Religious reverence was paid to the emperors--called Christian emperors--who built up the papacy. This work was begun by Constantine, who received the same adulations from the bishops that the popes received in the full tide of their prosperity. And that the Roman emperors were actually worshiped, we learn from different authors. Thus, Sir Isaac Newton said, in regard to the crowning of Charlemagne:--
"The pope crowned him, and anointed him with holy oil, and worshiped him on his knees, after the manner of adoring the old Roman emperors." On the Prophecies, Part 1, p. 82.
Cormenin also, in his "History of the Popes," says:--
"Then Leo prostrated himself before the new sovereign, and adored him, according to the usage of the ancient Cesars, recognizing him as his legitimate sovereign, and the defender of the faith." P. 309.
The order above noticed, of reaching the climax and then going back to the general history, has often been overlooked in studying this chapter, for which reason some have greatly erred in giving expositions of this prophecy. In "Thoughts on the Revelation," p. 538, edition 1885, this order is noticed as follows:--
"This wounding is the same as going into captivity, Rev. 13:10. It was inflicted when the pope was taken prisoner by Berthier, the French general, and the papal government was for a time abolished."
In the exposition of this chapter it is very important that we have the dates for the giving of the power, and of giving the deadly wound, correctly fixed. These two events mark the beginning and ending of the period of 1260 years. Some have affirmed, and apparently with great confidence, that it is not possible to fix these dates with certainty; that those taken are chosen arbitrarily and without sufficient reason. But if the facts are carefully considered there will be no room for doubt that the correct dates are a. d. 538 and 1798; within these is a period of 1260 years.
It has already been noticed that Justinian's letter to the pope, dated a. d. 533, could have no effect while the Arians ruled in Italy. The Roman pontiff could not be "the effectual corrector of heretics" in the sense in which that expression was always construed, while he himself was the subject of an Arian or heretical king.
Justinian's letter was written to John II. Less than ten years before that time John I. was sent as an ambassador by the king of Italy, to mediate in behalf of the heretics in the East. And the same power ruled over Rome when the famous letter of Justinian was written. Thus plainly is it seen that if the same power had continued to rule over Italy and over the pope, the letter of Justinian would have remained but an empty sound. The Ostrogoths were driven from Rome by Belisarius in 538. At that time the order of the emperor could first take effect, the pope then being free from Arian rule.
Let it be remembered that the very object of Justinian in sending Belisarius on this expedition against the Arians in Africa and Italy, was to destroy heresy and to establish the orthodox faith and the Catholic Church. It has been noticed that we cannot look to 606, where some writers have gone, for the time of the establishing of the papacy. They who adopted that date looked to the year 1866 for some great event in connection with the papacy, as the 1260 years would end there, counting from a. d. 606. But the great event did not appear, for the good reason that they had adopted a wrong starting-point.
Counting from the time of the subduing of the Ostrogoths in 538, which was the plucking up of the third horn referred to in Dan. 7:8, did any event occur just 1260 years from that time which marks the fulfillment of the prophecy?--There did. In that year Pope Pius VI. was taken prisoner, his chair was forcibly vacated, and he was taken to France, where he died in exile.
But here comes an objection, which may seem to have some force in the estimation of those who offer it, namely, that Pius VI. was not the only pope who was forcibly ejected from his chair,--not the only one who died in exile or in prison. Why, then, select his case as the one in which this prophecy was fulfilled?
It is always allowable to look to both ends of a prophetic period in order to locate it by the events. Thus, various dates have been assigned for the beginning of the twenty-three hundred days of Dan. 8:14. But the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 are the first part of those days, and we locate those weeks to a certainty by their termination.
They are located by the cross of Messiah the Prince.
So of the twelve hundred and sixty years. We find no certain time for their beginning but a.d. 538, when Justinian took the fourth and last step in the establishing of the papacy. From that point, twelve hundred and sixty years end in 1798--the only place where an event is found that completely fulfilled the prophecy.
Now in regard to the objection. The cases of John I. and John XXIII. Have been presented as examples, and we will examine them, and see if they are in anywise parallel to that of Pius VI. in 1798.
To be continued…
(From Eden to Eden-A Historic and Prophetic Study. By J. H. Waggoner. 1890.)
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