THOUGHTS ON DANIEL by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 3, 1881

THOUGHTS ON DANIEL.

By Uriah Smith

BY ELD. U. SMITH.

CHAPTER VII.—THE FOUR BEASTS.

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 to change. 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, in its catechisms, expunged the second commandment of the decalogue, to make way for its adoration of images. It has divided the tenth, to make up the number ten. 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 cathechisms, and the work entitled, "Who changed the Sabbath?" and works on the Sabbath and Law, published at the office of the Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich., and SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.

4. "And they shall be given into his hand 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 chapter 4:23, 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, (Sept. heemisu), half a year. Gesenius also gives "phelag, Chald. a half. Dan. 7:25." We thus have three years and a half for the continuance of this power. The Hebrew, or rather the Chaldee, word for time in the text before us is iddân, which Gesenius defines thus: "Time. Spec. in prophetic language for a year.. Dan. 7:25, ad iddân, veiddânin, oophelag iddân, for a year, also two years, and half a year, i. e., for three years and a half; comp. Jos. B. J. 1. 1. 1." 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 the three years and a half of prophetic time? The rule given us in the Bible is that when a day is used as a symbol, it stands for a year. Eze. 4:6; Num. 14:34. Under the Hebrew word for day, yom, Gesenius has this remark: "3. Sometimes yamin marks a definite space of time, viz. a year; as also Syr. and Chald. iddân denote both time and year; and as in English several words signifying time, weight, measure, are likewise used to denote certain specific times, weights, and measures." 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. As each day stands for a year, we have twelve hundred and sixty years for the continuation of this horn. Did the papacy possess dominion of that time? The answer again is, Yes. The edict of 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, as already shown, 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 French general, entered Rome, proclaimed a Republic, took the pope a 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 fulfills 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 7:7, etc.), 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 the zealous devotees of that church; 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. How could the children of God keep heart in this present evil world, amid 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, shall certainly be fulfilled, and that speedily?

NOTE 1.—Some startling events relative to the papacy, filling up the prophecies uttered in this chapter concerning that power, have taken place within a few years of the present time. Commencing in 1798, where the great national judgment fell upon the papacy, what have been the chief characteristics of its history? Answer: The rapid defection of its natural supporters, and greater assumptions on its own part. In 1844, Judgment of another kind began to sit, namely, the investigative Judgment, in the Heavenly sanctuary, preparatory to the coming of Christ. Dec. 8, 1854, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was decreed by the pope. July 21, 1870, in the great Ecumenical Council assembled at Rome, it was deliberately decreed by a vote of 538 against 2 that the pope was infallible. In the same year, Napoleon, by whose bayonets the pope was kept upon his throne, was crushed by Prussia, and the last prop was taken from under the papacy. Then Victor Emmanuel, seeing his opportunity to carry out the long-cherished dream of a United Italy, seized Rome to make it the capital of his kingdom. To his troops, under General Cadorna, Rome surrendered, Sept. 20, 1870. The pope's temporal power was thus wholly taken away, nevermore, said Victor Emmanuel, to be restored, and the pope has been virtually a prisoner in his own palace since that time. Because of the great words which the horn uttered, Daniel saw the beast destroyed and given to the burning flame. This destruction is to take place at the second coming of Christ and by means of that event; for the man of sin is to be consumed by the spirit of Christ's mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of his coming. 2 Thess. 2:8.

What words could be more arrogant, presumptuous, blasphemous, or insulting to high Heaven, than the deliberate adoption of the dogma of infallibility, thus clothing a mortal man with the prerogative of the Deity? And this was accomplished by papal intrigue and influence, July 21, 1870. Following in swift succession, the last vestige of temporal power was wrenched from his grasp. It was because of these words, that the prophet saw this power given to the burning flame. His dominion was to be consumed unto the end; implying that when his power as a civil ruler should be wholly destroyed, the end would not be far off. And the prophet immediately adds, "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." All has now been fully accomplished except the closing scene. Next comes the last, crowning, finishing act in the drama, when the beast will be given to the burning flame, and the saints of the Most High take the kingdom.

NOTE 2.—The query has arisen whether the judgment of verse 26 may not refer to the same judgment as that of verse 10, the investigative Judgment, which commenced in 1844. There seems to be no serious objection to this view; for while it is true that the dominion of the papal power has been waning away since 1798, this has been especially manifest since 1844. In 1848 the pope was driven from his capital, and in 1870 was stripped of his temporal dominion. With this view, the necessity of accounting for two kinds of judgment in the same chapter is avoided.