“And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of times.” Dan. 7: 25.
The spirit of apostasy was abroad in apostolic days. “The mystery of iniquity doth already work.” 2 Thess. 2: 7. It was seen in the perversion of truth, and in the spirit of self-exaltation that was to put man in the place of God, man’s way in the place of God’s way, man’s day in the place of God’s holy day, and to set human, mortal man as priest at an earthly altar, in place of the divine, ever-living High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary.
And this apostasy was to continue its work until the second coming of Christ. 2 Thess. 2: 8. “I beheld,” said Daniel, “and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; 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.” Dan. 7: 21, 22.
But a period of years was assigned in the prophecy during which in a special sense this power was to assert supremacy over the saints and times and laws of the Most High. “They shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”
The year is called a “time” in Scripture—“at the end of times, even years” (Dan. 11: 13, margin). According to the Jewish year, of 360 days, a time (one year), and times (two years), and a dividing of time (half-year), is 1260 prophetic days, or literal years. This period is repeated again and again in the prophecies concerning this apostasy—sometimes as forty-two months (1260 days, Jewish time), again as “a thousand and two hundred and threescore days.” See Dan. 12: 7; Rev. 11: 2, 3; 12: 6, 14; 13: 5.
The long 1260-year period, therefore, marks the time of the special papal supremacy. When did this period begin?
In the vision of Daniel 7, the prophet witnessed the division of the Roman empire into the ten kingdoms. Then up among these he saw the “little horn,” the Papacy, rising, with its stout look. And before it—in its presence—he saw “three of the first horns plucked up by the roots.”
These three horns were clearly the Heruli (overthrown by Theodoric, A. D. 493), the Vandals (subdued by Belisarius, A. D. 534), and the Ostrogoths (annihilated in the campaign under Narses, A. D. 552, 553). These were all heretical Arian kingdoms, followers of the teachings of Arius. The Papacy had appeared among the kingdoms, and three powers8had been literally “plucked up” in its presence.
The only questions are, At what period in the growth of the Papacy was it given power (over the saints and times and laws) answering to the prophecy? and, What vital events of well-established and incontrovertible history mark the beginning of the prophetic period of 1260 years? and, Do similarly vital events mark the close of that period? The answer of history is clear.
The pivotal stage between ancient and medieval history was the time of Justinian, who ruled the Roman empire from Constantinople. It was in the opening half of the sixth century. J. B. Bury says of Justinian:—
He may be likened to a colossal Janus bestriding the way of passage between the ancient and medieval worlds. . . . His military achievements decided the course of the history of Italy, and affected the development of western Europe; . . . and his ecclesiastical authority influenced the distant future of Christendom.—“History of the Later Roman Empire,” Vol. I, pages 351-353.
Of this world-shaping time, George Finlay says:—
The reign of Justinian is more remarkable as a portion of the history of mankind than as a chapter in the annals of the Roman empire or of the Greek nation. The changes of centuries passed in rapid succession before the eyes of one generation.—“Greece Under the Romans,” page 231.
And just here—in this epoch-making generation—we find the pivotal point in the history of the Papacy, the stage at which it passed from the days of strife for power to the period of acknowledged supremacy assigned in prophecy to the 1260 years.
In A. D. 533 Justinian issued his famous letter, imperially recognizing the bishop of Rome as the head of all the churches:—
Therefore we have been sedulous to subject and unite all the priests of the Orient throughout its whole extent to the see of Your Holiness. . . . For we do not suffer that anything which is mooted, however clear and unquestionable, pertaining to the state of the churches, should fail to be made known to Your Holiness, as being head of all the churches. For, as we have said before, we are zealous for the increase of the honor and authority of your see in all respects.—Cod. Justin., lib. 1, title 1, Baronii Annales Ecclesiastici, tom. 7, ann. 533, sec. 12. (The Latin text and translation given in “The Petrine Claims,” by R. F. Littledale.)
The emperor’s letter to the Pope had all the effect of a decree, and was later counted as such in the official acts. A later emperor, Phocas (A. D. 606), also recognized this headship of the Pope; but Dr. Croly says:—
The highest authorities among the civilians and annalists of Rome, spurn the idea that Phocas was the founder of the supremacy of Rome; they ascend to Justinian as the only legitimate source, and rightly date the title from the memorable year 533.—“Apocalypse of St. John.”
The critical period in the history and the prophecy was at hand. But when Justinian’s letter was issued, in 533, a heretical Arian and Gothic king ruled Italy from Ravenna, his capital. The Gothic kings claimed the right to interfere in papal elections at Rome. To restore Italy to the empire and drive out Arian heresy Justinian undertook his Italian campaigns. While in the sixteen years of these campaigns the city of Rome “changed masters five times, and suffered three severe sieges,” the real crisis of the contest was reached in 538, at the close of the first siege. The imperial army, under Belisarius, held the city of Rome; and the Goths, under King Witiges, had gathered practically their whole nation to take it. “If a single post had given way,” says Gibbon, “the Romans, and Rome itself, were irrecoverably lost.” The Goths were defeated, and this defeat, says Hodgkin, dug “the grave of the Gothic monarchy in Italy.” (“Italy and Her Invaders,” Vol. IV, book 5, chap. 9.) Though again and again they rallied, and twice afterward occupied Rome, this resistance of 538 against Witiges was the crucial hour in the history. Finlay says:—
With the conquest of Rome by Belisarius, the history of the ancient city may be considered as terminating; and with his defense against Witiges [538] commences the history of the middle ages.—“Greece Under the Romans,” page 295.
And the middle ages was, roughly speaking, the day of the Papacy. As Dr. Wm. Barry says,—
If the Papacy were blotted out from the world’s chronicle, the middle ages would vanish along with it.—“The Papal Monarchy,” page 4.
Not only was this stroke by the imperial sword at Rome, in 538, a decisive event in clearing the way for the assertion of the papal supremacy already recognized, but another deeply significant train of events begins with this year.
Pope Silverius had been made pope by the Gothic king. In November, 537, through intrigue, and on accusation that he had negotiated to betray the city to the besieging Goths, Silverius was stripped of his papal robes by Belisarius, and exiled, and Vigilius named in his stead. But the emperor intervened, and sent Silverius back to Rome, early in 538, with orders for a trial, and to be restored to the papal throne if found innocent. Belisarius delivered him to Vigilius, who quickly got him off to a desolate island, where he died, June 20, 538. Vigilius was thereafter recognized as pope. And of him Schaff says:—
Vigilius, a pliant creature of Theodora, ascended the papal chair under the military protection of Belisarius (538-554). —“History of the Christian Church,” Vol. III, page 327.
The arms of the empire put the Pope there; and though he was personally humiliated under Justinian’s arbitrary demands that he should approve and condemn according to imperial fancy, this use of the papal supremacy strengthened the idea that the Pope of Rome must be the one to speak and condemn for the universal church.
Next, Pelagius I (554-566) was made pope “by order of Justinian,” says Schaff, and this time again his elevation to the papal seat was secured “by the military aid of Narses.” Pelagius demanded frankly that the arms that had put a pope on the throne should enforce subjection to papal rule against bishops who failed to recognize his authority:—
Pelagius endeavored to enlist the civil power in his aid. He wrote several letters to Narses, who seems to have shrunk from using violence, urging him to have no scruples in the matter. These letters are an unqualified defense of the principle of persecution.—Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography, article, “Pelagius” (Pope).
Thus the Papacy asserted its claim to wield the civil sword of persecution. The supremacy had been recognized imperially in Justinian’s decree of 533. The sword had struck a decisive blow to clear the way in 538, and the arms that there set the Pope on the throne continued to be used by the Papacy in its warfare against the saints and the laws of the Most High. In Bemont and Monod’s “Medieval Europe” we read:—
Down to the sixth century all popes are declared saints in the martyrologies. Vigilius (537-555) is the first of a series of popes who no longer bear this title, which is henceforth sparingly conferred. From this time on the popes, more and more involved in worldly events, no longer belong solely to the church; they are men of the state, and then rulers of the state.—Page 120 (revised by George Burton Adams, Henry Holt & Co., 1902).
However we may approach the subject, the history puts its finger on that crucial point. As stated in the quotation from Finlay, “the changes of centuries passed in rapid succession before the eyes of one generation.” The time of the prophecy had come, when the Papacy was to enter upon the 1260 years of supremacy.
In A. D. 533 came the memorable decree of Justinian recognizing the supremacy of the Pope, and in A. D. 538 came the stroke with the sword at Rome cleaving the way, and setting on the papal throne the first of the new order of popes—the kingly rulers of state.
The prophecy assigned a period of 1260 years to this supremacy. At the9end of that period came equally significant and epoch-marking events, advertising to the world the end of the prophetic period.
Just 1260 years from the decree of A. D. 533 in favor of the Papacy, came a decree, in 1793, aimed at the Papacy; and just 1260 years from that stroke with the sword at Rome for the Papacy, came a stroke with the sword at Rome against the Papacy.