THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK OF DANIEL.
By Uriah Smith
VERSE 19. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; 20; and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. Of the first three beasts of this series, Daniel had so clear an understanding, that he had no trouble in reference to them. But he was astonished at this fourth beast, so unnatural and dreadful; for the farther we come down the stream of time, the farther is it necessary to depart from nature in forming symbols to accurately represent the degenerating governments of earth. The lion is a production of nature; but it must have the unnatural addition of two wings to represent the kingdom of Babylon. The bear we also find in nature; but as a symbol of Medo-Persia, an unnatural ferocity must be denoted by the insertion of three ribs into its mouth. So the leopard is a beast of nature; but to fitly represent Grecia, there is a departure from nature only in respect to wings, and the number of heads. But nature furnishes no symbol, which can fitly illustrate the fourth kingdom. A beast, the likeness of which never was seen, is taken; a beast dreadful and terrible, with nails of brass, and teeth of iron, so cruel, rapacious and fierce, that from mere love of oppression, it devoured, and brake in pieces, and trampled its victims beneath its feet. Wonderful was all this to the prophet, but something more wonderful still appears. A little horn comes up, and, true to the nature of the beast from which it springs, thrusts aside three of its fellows; and lo! the horn has eyes, not the uncultivated eyes of the brute, but the keen, shrewd, intelligent eyes of a man; and stranger yet, it has a mouth, and with that mouth, it utters proud sayings, and puts forth preposterous and arrogant claims. No wonder the prophet made special inquiry respecting this monster, so unearthly in its instincts, and so fiendish in its works and ways. In the following verses some specifications are given respecting the little horn, which enable the student of prophecy to make an application of this symbol, without danger of mistake. VERSE 21. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; 22; until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. The wonderful wrath of this little horn against the saints particularly attracted the attention of Daniel. The rise of the ten horns, or the division of Rome into ten kingdoms, between the years A. D. 356 and 483, has already been noticed. See on chap. ii, 41. As these horns denote kingdoms, the little horn must denote a kingdom also, but not of the same nature, because it was diverse from the others. They were political kingdoms. And now we inquire, What kingdom has arisen among the ten kingdoms of the Roman empire, since A. D. 483, and yet diverse from them all? The answer is, The spiritual kingdom of the Papacy. This answers to the symbol in every particular; nothing else will do it. Can there then be any mistake here? Daniel beheld this horn making war upon the saints. Has this been true of the Papacy? Fifty millions of martyrs, with a voice like the sound of many waters,198answer, Yes. Witness the cruel persecutions of the popes of Rome against the Waldenses, the Albigenses, and Protestants in general. It is stated, on good authority, that the persecutions, massacres, and religious wars, excited by the church and bishop of Rome, have occasioned the shedding of far more blood of the saints of the Most High, than all the enmity, hostility, and persecutions, of professed heathens from the foundation of the world. In verse 22 three consecutive events seem to be brought to view. Daniel, looking onward from the time when the little horn was in the height of its power, to the full end of the long contest between the saints, and Satan with all his agents, notes three prominent events that stand as mile posts along the way: 1. The coming of the Ancient of Days; that is, his providential judgments upon the little horn, the same as the sitting of the judgment and the taking away of his dominion, of verse 26. This is the first blow upon the Papacy. 2. The judgment that is given to the saints. This is the time when the saints sit with Christ in judgment a thousand years, apportioning the punishment due to the wicked. Then the martyrs will sit in judgment upon the great antichristian, persecuting power, which, in the days of their trial, hunted them like the beasts of the desert, and poured out their blood like water. 3. The time that the saints possess the kingdom; that is, the time of their entrance upon the possession of the new earth. Then the last vestige of the curse, of sin, and of sinners, root and branch, will have been removed away, and the territory so long misruled by the wicked powers of earth, the enemies of God’s people, will be finally taken by the righteous, to be held by them forever and ever. VERSE 23. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. 24. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. 25. And 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. 26. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end. We have here further particulars respecting the little horn. 1. He shall speak great words against the Most High. Has the Papacy done this? Look at a few of his self-assumed titles: “His Holiness,” “Vicegerent of the Son of God,” “Our Lord God, the Pope,” “Another God upon earth,” “King of the world,” “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Said Pope Nicholas to the emperor Michael, “The Pope, who is called God by Constantine, can never be bound or released by man; for God cannot be judged by man.” Is there need of bolder blasphemy than this? Listen also to the adulation the popes have received from their followers without rebuke: A Venetian prelate in the fourth session of the Lateran, addressed the Pope as follows: “Thou art our Shepherd, our Physician, in short, a second God upon earth.” Another bishop called him “the lion of the tribe of Judah, the promised Saviour.” Lord Anthony Pucci, in the fifth Lateran, said to the Pope, “The sight of thy divine majesty does not a little terrify me; for I am not ignorant that all power both in Heaven and in earth is given unto you; that the prophetic saying is fulfilled in you, ‘All the kings of the earth shall worship him, and nations shall serve him.’” Again, Dr. Clarke, on verse 25 says: “He shall speak as if he were God.” So St. Jerome quotes from Symmachus. To none can this apply so well or so fully as to the popes of Rome. They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only to God. They profess to forgive sins, which belongs only to God. They profess to open and shut Heaven, which belongs only to God. They profess to be higher than all the kings of the earth, which belongs only to God. And they go beyond God in pretending to loose whole nations from their oath of allegiance to their kings, when such kings do not please them. And they go against God, when they give indulgences for sin. This is the worst of all blasphemies.” 2. And shall wear out the saints of the Most High. Has the Papacy done this? For the mere information of any student of church history, no answer need here be given. All know that for long years the Papal church has pursued its relentless work against the true followers of God. Chapter after chapter might be given, would our limited space permit. Wars, crusades, massacres, inquisitions, and persecutions of all kinds—these were their weapons of extinction. And fifty millions of martyrs—these will rise up in the resurrection, as witnesses against her bloody work. Pagan Rome persecuted relentlessly the Christian church; and it is estimated that three millions of Christians perished in the first three centuries; yet it is said that the primitive Christians prayed for the continuance of Imperial Rome; for they knew that when this form of government should cease, another far worse persecuting power would arise, which would literally, as this prophecy declares, “wear out the saints of the Most High.” Pagan Rome could slay the infants, but spare the mothers; but Papal Rome slew both mothers and infants together. No age, no sex, no condition in life, was exempt from her relentless rage. “When Herod died,” says a forcible writer, “he went down to the grave with infamy, and earth had one murderer, one persecutor, less, and hell one victim more. O Rome! what will not be thy hell, and that of thy votaries, when thy judgment shall have come!” 3. And shall “think to change times and laws.” What laws? and whose? Not the laws of other earthly governments; for it was nothing marvelous nor strange for one power to change the laws of another, whenever it could bring such power under its dominion. Not human laws of any kind; for the little horn had power to change these so far as its jurisdiction extended; but the times and laws in question were such as this power should only think to change, but not be able. They are the laws of the same Being to whom the saints belong, whom it wears out with persecution; namely, the laws of the Most High. And has the Papacy attempted this? Yes, even this. It has expunged the second commandment, to make way for its adoration of images. It has divided the tenth, to make up the number. And, more audacious than all! it has taken hold of the fourth commandment, torn from its place the Sabbath of Jehovah, the only memorial of the great God ever given to man, and erected in its place a rival institution to serve another purpose. See Catholic catechisms, Who Changed the Sabbath, and works on the Sabbath and Law, published at the REVIEW Office. 4. “And they shall be given into his hands until a time and times and the dividing of time.” The pronoun “they” embraces the saints, the times, and the laws just mentioned. How long a time were they to be given into the hands of this power. A time, as we have seen from chap. iv, 23, is one year, two times, the least that could be denoted by the plural, two years and the dividing of time, or half a time (ἥμισυ, Sept.) half a year. We thus have three years and a half for the continuance of this power. We must now consider that we are in the midst of symbolic prophecy; hence this measurement is not literal, but prophetic. The inquiry then arises, how long a period is denoted by three years and a half of prophetic time? The only rule given us in the Bible is, that when a day is used as a symbol, it stands for a year. Eze. iv, 6; Num. xiv, 34. The ordinary Jewish year, which must be used as the basis of reckoning, contained three hundred and sixty days. Three years and a half contained twelve hundred and sixty days. Each day standing for a year we have twelve hundred and sixty years for the continuation of this horn. Did the papacy possess dominion that length of time? The answer again is, Yes. The edict of the emperor Justinian, dated A. D. 533, made the bishop of Rome the head of all the churches. But this edict could not go into effect till the Arian Ostrogoths, the last of the three horns that were plucked up to make room for the Papacy, were driven from Rome, and this was not accomplished till A. D. 538. The edict would have been of no effect had this latter event not been accomplished; hence from this latter year we are to date, as this was the earliest point where the saints were in reality in the hands of this power. From this point did the Papacy hold supremacy for twelve hundred and sixty years? Exactly. For in the year 1798, Berthier, a general of Bonaparte’s, entered Rome, proclaimed a Republic, took the pope prisoner, and for a time abolished the Papacy. It has never since enjoyed the privileges and immunities which it possessed before. Thus again this power fulfils to the very letter, the specifications of the prophecy, which proves beyond question that the application is correct. Here the judgment, a judgment like other national judgments of which the Bible speaks, see Acts vii, 7, &c., sat upon the Papacy. Its dominion was taken away, that is, its supremacy was broken, and a consuming process there commenced which is to continue till the end of time. Yet the papacy will exist, though with but a shadow of its former prestige, till the appearing of Christ, to be consumed with the spirit of his mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of his coming. How accurately verse 26 has been fulfilled, since 1798, and is being fulfilled to-day, is evident even to the casual observer of passing events. This is doubtless to be understood more particularly in a national sense. Individuals are still in zealous devotion; but everywhere it has lost and is losing, national recognition and support. VERSE 27. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. 28. Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me; but I kept the matter in my heart. After beholding the dark and desolate picture of Papal oppression upon the church, the prophet once more turns his eyes with delight upon the glorious period of the saints’ rest, when they shall have the kingdom free from all oppressive powers, in everlasting possession. What could the children of God do in this present evil world, sighing over the misrule and oppression of the governments of earth, and the abominations that are done in the land, if they could not look forward to the kingdom of God, and the return of their Lord, with full assurance that the promises concerning them both, shall certainly be fulfilled, and that speedily?