The Greatest Of The Prophets - by George McCready Price (1955) 63
11. A DETAILED HISTORYDaniel 11:29. At the time appointed he shall return, and come into the south; but it shall not be in the latter time as it was in the former.
If we bear in mind that henceforth we are dealing with national affairs, not with individuals, we
shall be prepared to understand and allow for a considerable lapse of time between some of the events here considered. The plan of the prophecy seems to be to give details near the beginning sufficient to enable us to identify the power spoken of, then to give larger events and broader sketches of the important later events for which the prophecy was especially designed.
The time appointed here mentioned may be the end of the period already mentioned in verse 24. If so, this would bring us to the year AD 330, and the removal of the capital from Rome to Constantinople.
This would indeed be not in the latter time as it was in the former; for it is considered by many that the removal of the capital in this way resulted ultimately to the distinct loss of the empire to the barbarians. Yet it must be confessed that it is hard to see how this can be spoken of as coming into the south. However, this is the interpretation adopted by Uriah Smith and others.
The critics also admit that they have much difficulty in explaining some of these verses near the middle of this chapter. S. R. Driver takes refuge under the statement, “We are however imperfectly informed as to the events of Seleucus IV’s reign.” - The Book of Daniel, page 176. Montgomery says: “There is no evidence that he [Antiochus] came to Jerusalem after the second war.” - Commentary, page 457. They all admit that there is no record whatever of a third expedition against Egypt, which their interpretation of the last of this chapter demands.
Dr. Edward Heppenstall, in a paper dealing with this chapter, says that somewhere along in these verses we have reference made to the persecutions under Diocletian and the transition of the policy of the empire to toleration and protection of Christianity, such as took place under Constantine. And he suggests that perhaps the two kings of verse 27, whose hearts are set on mischief and who speak lies at one table, may refer in a general way to the leaders of the church and the state, who then began the sad custom of uniting for carrying out their desires. This may be what is meant in some of these verses; but the details are not at all clear. Therefore I am here following along with Uriah Smith to verse 31.
Like other transition texts, which come in between two groups of texts which can be readily understood without any question, the twenty-ninth verse is a difficult one.
Daniel 11:30. For ships of Kittim shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and shall return, and have indignation against the holy covenant, and shall do his pleasure: he shall even return, and have regard unto them that forsake the holy covenant.
Here we seem to be getting onto somewhat surer ground; though the exact meaning or application of the passage is not above question.
There is no uncertainty about the meaning of the name “Kittim.” Primarily it means the island of Cyprus, which is visible from the Lebanon mountains; but Josephus tells us that all the islands to the west and “most of the parts beyond seas are called Kittim by the Hebrews.” In this text the name would be appropriate as the designation of a maritime power which would rise against Rome. Such a maritime power we find in the Vandal state of Genseric, with headquarters on the site of old Carthage, but with warlike bases around almost the whole circle of the Mediterranean.
The Vandals were the only ones among the Gothic tribes who maintained a fleet and who habitually carried on their depredations by way of the sea. Here they are taken probably as symbolic or representative of the entire barbaric invaders of the Imperial City.
Gibbon describes the army from the ships of Genseric as advancing from the port of Ostia in the year 455. “The pillage lasted fourteen days and nights: and all that yet remained of public or private wealth, of sacred or profane treasure, was diligently transported to the vessels of Genseric.” Among these were the golden candlestick and other sacred objects from the temple at Jerusalem which Titus had brought to Rome to adorn his triumph.
Year after year they returned to Rome or to the other cities which could be easily reached from the sea; and as Gibbon remarks, “their arms spread desolation, or terror, from the Columns of Hercules [Strait of Gibraltar] to the mouth of the Nile.” Gibbon further states that before Genseric died, in 477, “in the fullness of years and of glory, he beheld the final extinction of the Empire of the West.”
This end of the Western Empire is usually dated from 476; for in that year the senate packed up the official emblems of the imperial government and sent them to the Eastern emperor, saying that they had no further use for them. This event was far more important as an emblematic gesture than as a reality; yet when we next view the Imperial City, we find another kind of sovereign occupying the throne of the Caesars, the bishop of Rome. This transition from imperial to papal Rome is without doubt what is referred to in the closing clause of this verse-have regard unto them that forsake the holy covenant. Since the crucifixion no event more important in its effect upon the history of the human race has occurred than the establishment of the papacy upon the ruins of the Western Roman Empire.
Daniel 11:31. And forces shall stand on his part, and they shall profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and shall take away the continual burnt offering, and they shall set up the abomination that maketh desolate.
This verse, with many following ones, gives us a picture of the papal power in its various aspects. The expression, forces shall stand on his part, doubtless refers to all those agencies of power and wealth which the Roman bishops so effectively gathered to themselves. Profane the sanctuary might be understood of the profanation of the true church of Christ which the papacy effected. But more likely it refers to that desecration of the true worship of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary which was so surely brought about by the adoption of the doctrine of transubstantiation, whereby every fundamental idea of the mediatorial work of our heavenly High Priest is either parodied or denied. See the comment on chapter 8, verse 11.
Shall take away the continual burnt offering. This is exactly the same expression which is used in the eighth chapter, where we found it to refer to the taking away, or the making ineffectual, of the “continual mediation” carried on by our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. See the note on chapter 8, verse II, and following verses.
Shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. This we have found to refer to the blasphemous claim of the Roman Catholic Church that at the word of the priest, in the so-called “sacrifice of the mass,” the actual body and blood of Christ are reincarnated, and that this wafer god becomes all that Christ in person would be if here present in the flesh. The notable victory of Clovis in 508, whereby the Catholic priesthood was for the first time officially established by law, is probably as good a date for these events as any.
It is no valid argument against this view that Christ, in His great prophecy on the Mount of Olives, used this term, “the abomination of desolation” (quoting from the Greek Septuagint form of the expression, or from the corresponding one in Daniel 9:27), as applying to the Roman armies, or perhaps alluding to the idolatrous symbols which were always carried at the head of the Roman troops. At any rate, Christ applied it to something connected with imperial or pagan Rome, while we are here applying it to papal Rome. It will be admitted by everyone that it would be only by the figure of metonymy, where some significant part or feature is used for the larger or more important word, that what Christ spoke of can be understood for the Roman government itself. In the eighth chapter of Daniel at least, and perhaps also here in this eleventh chapter, the imperial government of Rome and the papal form are not discriminated, but the one blends into the other, and both are treated as one entity-a view of the matter which is confirmed by history and by common sense. In the sight of heaven, Rome papal is only a modified form of Rome pagan, having a thin veneer of pseudo Christianity spread over it. This term from the prophet Daniel is even more appropriate when applied to the blasphemous sacrifice of the mass than to the Roman military insignia, for the former is even more a genuine “abomination” than the latter.
Daniel 11:32. And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he pervert by flatteries; but the people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
The word covenant as here used might be thought of as equivalent to true religion, or as meaning possibly the revealed will of God, the Scriptures. Accordingly we would have here the statement that those who renounce or despise the Scriptures, and who think more highly of the decrees of the church and the decisions of the councils than they do of the Scriptures, will be perverted by the flatteries of the head of the Catholic Church, being confirmed in their course by the honors or by the wealth thence bestowed. On the other hand, this apostasy is not to become universal.
There will still be some people that know their God; and these shall be strong, and do exploits, or will be “stout to do,” as one translation puts it. During the long, dreary centuries, while the system of Rome reigned in seeming supremacy over the minds and the bodies of mankind, there were always some here and there who kept the true light still burning, and who accomplished astonishing feats of heroism and fidelity to what they believed to be right. By the arrogant church authorities they were always termed heretics; but we know them by such names as Waldenses, Albigenses, and later as Huguenots, Anabaptists, etc. Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones.
Daniel 11:33. And they that are wise among the people shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil, many days.
The same term here used, they that are wise, occurs also in chapter 12, verses 3, 10, in all these instances meaning the true people of God, whose truest instinct has always been to tell others the glorious news of the gospel. In all ages they have sought to instruct many. One of their numberless disguises during the days of persecution was that of peddlers or traveling salesmen, so beautifully described by “the Quaker Poet.” See “The Vaudois Teacher,” by John Greenleaf Whittier.
They shall fall by the sword. One of the methods adopted by Rome for the crushing out of what she termed heresy was organized raids or invasion of the villages and towns among the Alps and elsewhere by armies of French, or Spanish, or Italians. But individual executions might also be described by this clause.
And by flame. As everyone knows, one of the favorite methods of executing heretics was to burn them at the stake. This seems to have been adopted under the perverse idea that thus they were not really shedding blood!
By captivity and by spoil. Another method of treating those who disagreed with Rome was to compel them to work as galley slaves until they were exhausted and died. John Knox had a period of such slavery, but he escaped and became the Reformer of Scotland. Perhaps the most drastically effective of the methods employed to exterminate the true faith was by what is termed the dragonnades. This took place after the rise of the Protestant Reformation, and by this plan large numbers of brutal, licentious soldiers were quartered in the homes of the Huguenots of France, with orders to do anything they liked, short of actual murder, to make the people become Catholics.
Many days. This term undoubtedly refers to the 1260 prophetic days or literal years, which is repeatedly spoken of in the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation as the fixed period of papal supremacy.
It is variously called, “forty and two months,” “a time and times and half a time,” “a thousand two hundred and threescore days;” all of which expressions mean the same thing. These “many days” are to be reckoned from AD 538 to 1798. The equivalent expressions occur in Daniel 7:25; 12:7; Revelation 12:6, 14; 13:5.
Truth never dies. The ages come and go;
The mountains wear away; the seas retire;
Destruction lays earth’s mighty cities low,
And empires, states, and dynasties expire;
But caught and handed onward by the wise,
Truth never dies.
Daniel 11:34. Now when they shall fall, they shall be helped with a little help; but many shall join themselves unto them with flatteries.
In the book of Revelation (12:13-16), where a parallel account is given of this long period, the statement is that “the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” This has been interpreted as referring to the way in which the New World was discovered and opened for people to flee to, when persecuted in the Old World. Helped with a little help, however, would cover all the various agencies which arose to mitigate the severity of the papal warfare against God’s people. The Reformation which was initiated by Luther in Germany and by other Reformers in various lands, was one of these methods of help. Yet as has so often been the case, when the cause of reform was adopted by kings and men of high social or political position, many would join them from unworthy motives, because they found it “prosperous to be just,” as Lowell expresses it. A cause must have great intrinsic value and vitality when it can stand being advocated by such false friends.
Daniel 11:35. And some of them that are wise shall fall, to refine them, and to purify, and to make them white, even to the time of the end; because it is yet for the time appointed.
Dr. R. H. Charles says that this expression, the time of the end, is “always used eschatologically” in the book of Daniel, that is, it always refers definitely to a period down near the end of all earthly affairs and the ushering in of the kingdom of God. (Commentary, page 394) However, it seems clear that here it refers rather to the end of the period of 1260 years of papal supremacy, which as we have shown elsewhere (page 151) is regarded by the prophecy as terminating in 1798, when the pope was taken prisoner by Berthier, one of Napoleon’s generals, who declared the papacy abolished.
Four verses of description here intervene before the narrative of events is resumed in verse 40. These four verses of description and characterization have been thought by some to refer to the atheistic regime of the French Revolution, which held sway for a brief time at about the termination of these 1260 years. However, it is contrary to all legitimate rules of interpretation to say that a new power is brought in here without any notification that it is wholly new. Besides, this atheistic power of the French Revolution maintained its character of atheism for only a brief period. It is incredible that the prophecy should turn aside from the consideration of the career of the papal power, which was by no means ended at the time here spoken of, and take up the career of France, which was and is by no means the most outstanding power in the world, or most important in its connection with the people of God for the last days.
These four verses of description contain so many phrases and expressions which are similar or identical to the other well-known prophecies of the papal power in the seventh and eighth chapters of this book, and in Paul’s description in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12, that it is unreasonable to abandon all the parallels and identities to bring in another power which is not elsewhere mentioned in any of the prophecies of this book of Daniel, and only once in the Revelation.
Daniel 11:36. And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every God, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods; and he shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done.
We understand this to be an attempt to characterize or to describe the essential character of the Roman power. Shall do according to his will means that he is so strong or so influential that he can overcome all opposition.
Magnify himself above every god. This is very similar to Paul’s description of the man of sin who “opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4. Out of many arrogant and blasphemous claims of the Roman Catholic Church, we shall mention only one. It is officially taught by that body that when the priest pronounces the words of consecration over the bread and wine, Jesus Christ is compelled at these words to become again incarnate in these emblems; thus the priest is said to command his Creator. This is such a common and universal claim on the part of the Roman clergy that there is no need of quoting specific references. See the note on chapter 8, verse II.
Shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods. This is similar to the words used of the little horn of Daniel 7: “He shall speak words against the Most High.” Verse 25. It is also like the language used about the leopard beast of Revelation 13: “There was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.” Verses 5, 6.
Till the indignation be accomplished. This is clearly a direct reference to Isaiah 10:25; 26:20, 21. It refers to the final utter destruction of all sin and sinners. Since the power here spoken of is to continue down until the final destruction of all sinners at the Second Coming of Christ, it cannot refer to infidel France during the time of the French Revolution, as some commentators have supposed. Obviously it must apply to some anti-Christian power which continues its blasphemous work to the end of time. Rome answers these conditions, and nothing else does.
Thus we have another and strong proof that this entire passage. from verse 36 to verse 39, inclusive, is meant to apply to Rome.
Daniel 11:37. Neither shall he regard the gods of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all.
This is a tremendous indictment; but most of these expressions are repetitions or modifications of what was stated in the preceding verse.
The gods of his fathers. Systematically during its long career, and in all the countries where it has gone, including its modern entrance into Africa, China, India, or Japan, the Roman Catholic Church has always taken over and made use of the temples and shrines of other religions, as well as the local feast days and ceremonies it found popularly observed. Christmas and Easter and Halloween, to say nothing of “the venerable day of the sun,” as Constantine called it, may serve as examples of the innumerable pagan festivals which have been incorporated into the Roman Catholic calendar. In every country on the globe we find local pagan shrines and ceremonies which have been blessed by Roman Catholic decree and dedicated anew to the uses of the so-called Holy Mother Church. Few heathen festivals, or shrines, or local ceremonies are ever discarded; essentially all of them have been blessed with the formularies of purification, and then have been incorporated bodily into that vast conglomeration of cults which constitutes the Roman Church.
Nor the desire of women. To have children of her own is a desire of every normal woman. The Roman Catholic Church contravenes this desire by its vows of celibacy which it exacts of all its more devout followers entering the church orders, men and women alike. This characteristic of the church is
spoken of also in 1 Timothy 4:15.
Nor regard any god. This statement has been emphasized by those who wish to interpret this prophecy to mean atheistic France; they say that this has never been true of the papacy. But the very next word in this text indicates its true meaning. For gives the reason for the statement that this power does not regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. Any man who, even in his heart, magnifies himself above all other beings human and divine, may truthfully be said to regard no other god, no matter how many deities he professes to revere. And any mortal who thinks that he can manufacture his Creator by repeating a few Latin words, is clearly magnifying himself above all.
As already stated in the discussion of verse 36, the apostle Paul, in his second Thessalonian letter, makes a clear and incontrovertible reference to this passage in Daniel, by his remarks concerning the antichrist. 2 Thessalonians 2:4. We have a right to say that this statement by Paul indicates what this passage in Daniel was intended to mean. Paul seems to be giving a divine commentary on this text.
Daniel 11:38. But in his place shall he honor the god of fortresses; and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones and pleasant things.
The first phrase of this verse, in his place, means in his official position as the leader of the people. The god of fortresses is an expression which has been shown by Sir Isaac Newton, Mosheim, and E. B. Elliott to refer to the saints, with their relics and images, which the Roman Catholic Church has from its earliest days regarded with worshipful reverence as the “mahuzzim,” or patron protectors, of the places where they were buried or were deposited.
Thus the pantheon at Rome was by Emperor Phocas turned over to the bishop of Rome, who rededicated it to all the saints, with the Virgin Mary as their head, in the place formerly held by Cybele, the so-called mother of the pagan gods. It is in this spirit of invoking a divine protector that the Greeks still pray to Mary: “O thou Virgin Mother of God, thou impregnable wall, thou fortress of salvation.” Every important locality is supposed to have its patron saint as a protector and guardian. The Roman Catholic Church has long claimed the exclusive right of canonization, or the right of making saints to whom prayers and worship may be addressed. See E. B. Elliott, Horae Apocalypticae, 1851 ed., vol. 3, P. 164.
This saint making and saint worship throughout the centuries has, as the next verse declares, been uniformly carried on in a venal or mercenary manner, “for a price.”
A god whom his fathers knew not. Obviously this refers to the wafer-god which the Catholic Church calls the host, a word from the Latin which originally meant a victim or a sacrifice. Anyone who has witnessed the elaborate ceremonial, and the profusion of wealth and ornamentation which is associated with the public display of the consecrated bread, especially at the eucharistic congresses which are held from time to time in various strategic parts of the world, will appreciate the remarks of this verse. This is most assuredly a kind of god that his fathers never knew or dreamed of; and it is honored with more than royal luxury and pomp.
Daniel 11:39. And he shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god: whosoever acknowledges him he will increase with glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price.
Probably the foreign god here mentioned is the same as the “god whom his fathers knew not” of the preceding verse. The ceremonial of the mass and all the other acts associated therewith are the very center and essence of the entire Roman Catholic Church. The second clause means that the road to glory and honor is through acknowledging this “foreign god,” the wafer god of the Eucharist.
He shall cause them to rule over many. The high officials of the church have long been termed the “princes of the church,” and no kings or potentates of earth can vie with them in their asserted, and even their actual, power over the bodies and souls of men.
Shall divide the land for a price. All history testifies to the fact that the way to almost any position in the church is open to the one who possesses the golden key. Simony is the term used for the traffic in sacred offices; and this coinage of a specific term to describe the practice, is sufficient proof, if proof were needed, of the fitness of the prophecy.
In looking back over these four descriptive verses, no one can deny that every major term found in the prophecy is matched by the facts regarding the power here considered. The fitness of all these terms is incomparably more complete than they would be if we should attempt to apply them to France or to any other power.
Daniel 11:40. And at the time of the end shall the king of the south contend with him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through.
Only a slight uncertainty can surround the meaning of the time of the end. We have already seen that it means the period following the 1260 years of papal supremacy, that is, the period subsequent to 1798. This is the definition of the term as used in The Great Controversy: “But that part of his prophecy which related to the last days, Daniel was bidden to close up and seal ‘to the time of the end.’ . . . But since 1798 the book of Daniel has been unsealed, knowledge of the prophecies has increased, and many have proclaimed the solemn message of the judgment near.” - Page 356.
Among those who agree in identifying the power designated in the preceding verses as the papacy, two opinions prevail as to the interpretation of this verse and the ones following. Let us call them Interpretation No. 1 and Interpretation No. 2.
1. This may also be termed the triangular view, for it turns largely on the view that the papacy is here treated as a third power which is being attacked from the two opposite sides, the south and the north.
On this view all the pronouns in the third person which are here and hereafter used, “he” and “him,” are uniformly applied to the papacy, though the terms “south” and “north” are not applied as strictly along geographical lines as was done by Uriah Smith, who applied the third power to France instead of to the papacy. This modern revised triangular view also tends to emphasize the time since 1844 as pre-eminently “the time of the end,” and applies this verse and all those following to either the present or the future. Those who hold this view also think that verse 45, at the last of this chapter, may mean that at some future time the papacy may set up temporary headquarters in the city of Jerusalem. This would be to say that we have in these verses, 40-45, a blending of literal (geographical) with the figurative or symbolic. Such a partial blending of literal with symbolic is not wholly unknown in prophecy, as has been pointed out elsewhere.
In dealing with unfulfilled prophecy it behooves us all to be modest, for we may be mistaken. Hence without giving arguments for or against this interpretation, we simply pass to a second view.
2. The second system of interpretation is different only in a few minor details. Both views agree in saying that the main world power here dealt with is the Roman papacy, and both say that the final verses of this chapter mean the same power. But the second interpretation says that the name “king of the north,” though not repeated throughout many preceding verses, should be applied to the power spoken of from about verse 16 onward. In other words, this interpretation says that the papacy is “the king of the north,” as described in the preceding verses. This view eliminates any third power in verse 40, for it interprets it in the following manner as simplified by this paraphrase:
“At the time of the end shall the king of the south contend with him [the king of the north, or the papacy]. And the king of the north shall come against him [the king of the south] like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he [the king of the north] shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through [he shall come off triumphantly victorious].”
Since both of these views are alike in reading the Roman Catholic Church into this entire latter part of this eleventh chapter, and both apply the closing verses (verses 44, 45) to the same power, we need not dwell on the minor points of difference, but note the simplicity and unity which these views bring into this prophecy.
This interpretation brings this eleventh chapter of Daniel into full parallelism with * the lines of world history traced in chapter 2, in chapter 7, and again in chapter 8, all of which tell of the desolating power of Rome exercised on a world-wide scale. This was a line of argument which appealed so strongly to James White, who time and again declared that all four of Daniel’s lines of prophecy covered the same ground, and all end in the same way.
We have a right to expect that somewhere in the book of Daniel we will have a detailed mention of the final conflict between the papacy and her associates and the true church of Christ which is to take place just before the Second Coming of Christ. The book of Revelation is full of this final conflict, for almost half of the Revelation is devoted to the various aspects of this great crisis. But in the entire book of Daniel there is not the slightest hint of this final struggle, if this last of the eleventh and the first part of the twelfth are not to be thus interpreted. The seventh and the eighth chapters of Daniel, of course, have much to say about the age-long career of the Roman apostasy, but nothing is set forth concerning this final struggle with the triumphant resurgent papacy, unless it is here in the final verses of chapter 11. This final life-and-death conflict between the church and all the combined powers of earth, in which the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet combine in the attempt to obliterate the very name of Christ’s true church, must surely be given some place in this book of Daniel.
From about the middle of the eleventh chapter onward, the prophecy becomes less local and nationalistic, and more and more distinctly religious and of global significance. It is absolutely certain that in its outcome (which of course reaches over into the next chapter, for the chapter divisions obscure the unity of the entire vision) the prophecy is of world-wide application. It deals with the close of probation, the time of trouble on all the nations of the world, and the final deliverance of the people of God, which in this age must be in all the earth. Both God’s work and that of His enemy are today on a global scale.
Moreover, it is a principle of universal validity that all the other prophecies of the Old Testament, if they reach down to periods this side of the cross, always become more abstract and spiritual. For the concrete, objective things of the Old Covenant have now become spiritualized, what was local and
nationalistic now becoming world-wide and universal. Literally hundreds of terms, like Zion, Israel, etc., have since the cross come to us with wider and more spiritual connotations. One reason for this providentially planned situation is that the people of God are now found on all the continents of the world; hence the new wine positively cannot be confined in the old bottles. “If you are Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” The book of the Revelation also has many examples of the greatly enlarged, or global, application of the various prophecies of the Old Testament, especially in those dealing with the closing events of the gospel age.
Since all this cannot be denied, we have a right to expect that from this fortieth verse and onward we shall be dealing with more abstract and more religious, or spiritual, ideas. These will also be more world-wide, though spoken of under the old familiar terms used by the Jews of twenty-five centuries ago, which must now be treated as symbols.
To be continued...
