Thoughts on Daniel--Chapter XI.
By Uriah Smith
VERSE 29. At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. THE time appointed is probably the prophetic time of verse 24, of which we have previously spoken. It closed, as already shown, in A. D. 330, at which time this power was to return and come again toward the south, but not as on the former occasion, when it went to Egypt, nor as the latter, when it went to Judea. Those were expeditions which resulted in conquest and glory. This led to demoralization and ruin. The removal of the seat of empire to Constantinople was the signal of the downfall of the empire. Rome then lost its prestige. The western division was exposed to the incursions of foreign enemies. On the death of Constantine, the Roman Empire was divided into three parts, between his three sons, Constantius, Constantine II., and Constans. Constans being victor, gained the supremacy of the whole West. He was soon slain by one of his commanders, who, in turn, was shortly defeated by the surviving emperor, and in despair ended his own days, A. D. 353. The barbarians of the north soon began their depredations, and extended their conquests till the imperial power of the West expired in A. D. 476. This was indeed different from the two former movements brought to view in the prophecy; and to this the fatal step of removing the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople, directly led. VERSE 30. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and have indignation against the holy covenant; so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. The prophetic narrative still has reference to the power which has been the subject of the prophecy from the sixteenth verse, namely, Rome. What were the ships of Chittim that came against this power, and when was this movement made? What country or power is meant by Chittim? Dr. A. Clarke, on Isa. 23 : 1, has this note: "From the land of Chittim it is revealed to them. The news of the destruction of Tyre, by Nebuchadnezzar, is said to be brought to them from Chittim, the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean; for the Tyrians, says Jerome, on verse 6, when they saw they had no other means of escape, fled in their ships, and took refuge in Carthage, and in the islands of the Ionian and Ægean Seas. So also Jochri on the same place."
Kitto gives the same locality to Chittim, namely, the coast and islands of the Mediterranean; and the mind is carried by the testimony of Jerome to a definite and celebrated city as situated in that land, namely, Carthage. Was ever a naval warfare, with Carthage as a base of operations, waged against the Roman Empire? Those who have read of the terrible onslaught of the Vandals upon Rome under the fierce Genseric, can readily answer in the affirmative. Sallying every spring from the port of Carthage, at the head of his numerous and well-disciplined naval forces, he spread consternation through all the maritime provinces of the empire. That this is the work brought to view is further evident when we consider that we are brought down in the prophecy to this very time. In verse 29, the transfer of empire to Constantinople we understand to be mentioned. Following in due course of time as the next remarkable revolution, came the eruptions of the barbarians of the North, prominent among which was the Vandal war already mentioned. The years A. D. 428-468 mark the career of Genseric. "He shall be grieved and return." This may have reference to the desperate efforts which were made to dispossess Genseric of the sovereignty of the seas, the first, by Marjorian, the second, by Leo, both of which proved to be utter failures; and Rome was obliged to submit to the humiliation of seeing its provinces ravaged, and its "eternal city" pillaged by the enemy. "Indignation against the covenant;" that is, the Holy Scriptures, the book of the covenant. A revolution of this nature was accomplished in Rome. The Goths, Huns, and Vandals, who conquered Rome, embraced the Arian faith, and became enemies of the Catholic church. It was especially for the purpose of exterminating this heresy that Justinian decreed the pope to be the head of the church, and the corrector of heretics. Then it was decreed that the Bible was a dangerous book, and should not be read by the common people, but all questions in dispute should be submitted to the pope. Thus was indignity heaped upon God's word. And the emperors of Rome, the eastern division of which still continued, had intelligence or connived with the church of Rome which had forsaken the covenant, and constituted the great apostasy, for the purpose of putting down ungodly throne by the defeat of the Arian Goths, who then held possession of Rome, in A. D. 538. VERSE 31. And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. The power of the empire was committed to the carrying on of the work before mentioned. And they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, or literally fulfilled; for Rome was sacked by the Goths, Huns, and Vandals, and the imperial power of the West ceased through the conquest of Rome by Odoacer. Or if it refers to those rulers of the empire who were working in behalf of the papacy against the pagan and all other opposing religions, it would signify the removal of the seat of the empire from Rome to Constantinople; which contributed more than anything else to the downfall of the empire. The passage would then be parallel to Dan. 8:11, and Rev. 13:2. "And they shall take away the daily sacrifice." It was shown on Dan. 8:13, that "sacrifice" is a word erroneously supplied; that it should be desolation; and that the expression denotes a desolating power of which the abomination of desolation is but the counterpart, and to which it succeeds in point of time. The daily desolation was paganism, the abomination of desolation is the papacy. But it may be asked how this can be the papacy, since Christ spoke of it in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem. And the answer is, Christ evidently referred to the 9th of Daniel, which is a prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, and not to this verse of the 11th, which does not refer to that event. Daniel, in the 9th chapter, speaks of desolations, plural. More than one abomination, therefore, treads down the church; that is, so far as the church is concerned, both paganism and the papacy are abominations. But as distinguished from each other, the language is restricted, and one is the daily desolation and the other is pre-eminently the transgression or abomination of desolation. How was the daily, or paganism, taken away? As this is spoken of in connection with the placing or setting up of the abomination of desolation, or the papacy, it must denote, not merely the nominal change of the religion of the empire from paganism to Christianity, as on the conversion, so-called, of Constantine, but such an eradication of paganism from all the elements of the empire, that the way would be all open for the papal abomination to arise and assert its arrogant claims. Such a revolution as this, plainly defined, was accomplished; but not for nearly two hundred years after the death of Constantine. As we approach the year A. D. 508, we behold a grand crisis ripening between Catholicism and the pagan influences still existing in the empire. Up to the time of the conversion of Clovis, king of France, A. D. 496, the French and other nations of Western Rome were pagan; but subsequently to that event, the efforts to convert idolaters to Christ were crowned with great success. The conversion of Clovis is said to have been the occasion of bestowing upon the French monarch the titles of "Most Christian Majesty," and "Eldest Son of the Church." Between that time and A. D. 508, by alliances, capitulations, and conquests, the Arborici, the Roman garrisons in the West, Brittany, the Burgundians, and the Visigoths, were brought into subjection. From the time when these successes were fully accomplished, namely, 508, the papacy was triumphant so far as paganism was concerned; for though the latter doubtless retarded the progress of the Catholic faith, yet it had not the power, if it had the disposition, to suppress that faith, and hinder the encroachments of the Roman pontiff. When the prominent powers of Europe gave up their attachment to paganism, it was only to perpetuate its abominations in another form; for Christianity, as exhibited in the Catholic church, was, and is, only paganism baptized. In England, Arthur, the first Christian king, founded the Christian worship on the ruin of the pagan. Rapin, who claims to be exact in the chronology of events, states that he was elected monarch of Britain in 508. Book ii, p. 124. The condition of the See of Rome was also peculiar at this time. In 498, Symmachus ascended the pontifical throne as a recent convert from paganism. He reigned to A. D. 514. He found his way to the papal chair, says Du Pin, by striving with his competitor even unto blood. He received adulation as the successor of St. Peter, and struck the key-note of papal assumption, by presuming to excommunicate the emperor Anastasius. The most servile flatterers of the pope now began to maintain that he was constituted judge in the place of God, and that he was the vicegerent of the Most High. Such was the direction in which events were tending in the West. What posture did affairs at the same time assume in the East? A strong papal party now existed in all parts of the empire. The adherents of this cause in Constantinople, encouraged by the success of their brethren in the West, deemed it safe to commence open hostilities in behalf of their master at Rome. In 508, their partisan zeal culminated in a whirlwind of fanaticism and civil war, which swept in fire and blood through the streets of the eastern capital. Gibbon, under the years 508-514, speaking of the commotions in Constantinople, says:- "The statues of the emperor were broken, and his person was concealed in a suburb, till, at the end of three days, he dared to implore the mercy of his subjects. Without his diadem, and in the posture of a suppliant, Anastasius appeared on the throne of the circus. The Catholics before his face rehearsed the genuine Trisagion; they exulted in the offer which he proclaimed by the voice of a herald, of abdicating the purple; they listened to the admonition that, since all could not reign, they should previously agree in the choice of a sovereign; and they accepted the blood of two unpopular ministers, whom their master, without hesitation, condemned to the lions. These furious but transient seditions were encouraged by the success of Vitalian, who, with his army of Huns and Bulgarians, for the most part idolators, declared himself the champion of the Catholic faith. In this pious rebellion he depopulated Thrace, besieged Constantinople, exterminated sixty-five thousand of his fellow-Christians, till he obtained the recall of the bishops, the satisfaction of the pope, and the establishment of the council of Chalcedon, an orthodox treaty, reluctantly signed by the dying Anastasius, and more faithfully performed by the uncle of Justinian. And such was the event of the first of the religious wars which have been waged in the name, and by the disciples, of the God of Peace."--Decline and Fall, Vol. iv, p. 526. Let it be marked that in this year, 508, paganism had so far declined, and Catholicism had so far relatively increased in strength, that the Catholic church for the first time waged a successful war against both the civil authority of the empire and the church of the East, which had for the most part embraced the Monophosite doctrine. The extermination of 65,000 heretics was the result. With the following extract from the Second Advent Manual, pp. 79-81, we close the testimony on this point: "We now invite our modern Gamaliels to take a position with us in the place of the sanctuary of paganism (since claimed as the 'patrimony of St. Peter') in 508. We look a few years into the past, and the rude paganism of the northern barbarians is pouring down upon the nominally Christian empire of Western Rome--triumphing everywhere--and its triumphs everywhere distinguished by the most savage cruelty. . . . The empire falls, and is broken into fragments. One by one the lords and rulers of these fragments abandon their paganism and profess the Christian faith. In religion, the conquerors are yielding to the conquered. But still paganism is triumphant. Among its supporters there is one stern and successful conqueror. (Clovis.) But soon he also bows before the power of the new faith, and becomes its champion. He is still triumphant, but, as a hero and conqueror, reaches the zenith at the point we occupy, A. D. 508. "In or near the same year, the last important subdivision of the fallen empire is publicly, and by the coronation of its triumphant 'monarch,' Christianized.
"The pontiff for the period on which we stand is a recently-converted pagan. The bloody contest which placed him in the chair was decided by the interposition of an Arian king. He is bowed to and saluted as filling 'the place of God on earth.' The senate is so far under his power, that suspicion that the interests of the See of Rome demand it, they excommunicate the emperor. . . . In 508, the mine is sprung beneath the throne of the Eastern Empire. The result of the confusion and strife it occasions is the humiliation of its rightful lord. Now the question is, At what time was paganism so far suppressed as to make room for its substitute and successor, the papal abomination? When was this abomination placed in a position to start on its career of blasphemy and blood? Is there any other date for its being 'placed,' or 'set up,' in the room of paganism, but 508? If the mysterious enchantress has not now brought all her victims within her power, she has taken her position, and some have yielded to the fascination. The others are at length subdued, 'and kings, and peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues,' are brought under the spell which prepares them, even while 'drunken with the blood of the221martyrs of Jesus,' to 'think they are doing God service,' and to fancy themselves the exclusive favorites of Heaven, while becoming an easier and richer prey for the damnation of hell." From these evidences we think it clear that the daily, or paganism, was taken away in A. D. 508. This was preparatory to the setting up, or establishment, of the papacy, which was a separate and subsequent event. Of this, the prophetic narrative now leads us to speak. "And they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate." Having shown quite fully what constituted the taking away of the daily, or paganism, we now inquire, When was the abomination that maketh desolate, or the papacy, placed, or set up? The little horn that had eyes like the eyes of man was not slow to see when the way was open for his advancement and elevation. From the year 508, its progress toward universal supremacy was without parallel.