Prophecy-No. 9 by W. H. Blaisdell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 13, 1874

Prophecy.—No. 9.

By W. H. Blaisdell

THE history of pagan Rome in its undivided state, as shown in our examination of the great image, reaches from B. C. 161 to A. D. 356. The division of the Roman Empire into ten kingdoms, as also previously shown, took place between A. D. 356 and 483.

Therefore this line of prophecy, brought to view under the symbols of four beasts, as thus far examined, according to the explanation of the angel, verse 7 and the first part of 24, reaches from the Babylonian Empire to the completion of the ten divisions of the Roman Empire, A. D. 483. The line of prophecy as brought to view by the great image reaches from the days of Babylon to the setting up of God’s kingdom, yet in it we are not informed of any particular events that would transpire in the history of nations, or among the people of God, between 483 (the time when the divisions of the Roman Empire were completed) and the setting up of the kingdom of God.

After bringing us down over the history of these four successive empires to 483, and informing us that Rome should ever after remain in a divided condition, the prophet then points down over the history of time to the final establishment of the kingdom of God without giving any instructions in regard to events that would occur during the intervening period to which we here refer.

But after being brought down to 483 in this line of prophecy, we find another power brought to view, as symbolized by the little horn with eyes like a man, and a mouth speaking great things, which is to act its part between 483 and the setting up of God’s kingdom. Verse 8, the last part of 24, and onward to 27.

Protestants generally agree that this horn symbolizes the papacy, the Catholic church. The three powers plucked up before it were the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths, in the years 493, 534, and 538, respectively.—Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Though these kingdoms were not utterly destroyed, yet they were compelled to quit the field by the power of the papacy and obtain their territorial limits in other places.

“And he shall speak great words against the Most High.” Verse 25.

In fulfillment of this, we find the papacy has assumed such blasphemous titles as the following: “Our Lord God the Pope,” “Another God upon Earth,” “Vicegerent of the Son of God,” and many others of like import.

“He shall wear out the saints of the Most High.” It is a fact well known, that more than fifty millions of Christians were put to death by that power during the long years of its bloody reign, from 538 to 1798, the twelve hundred and sixty years allotted to the supremacy of this power. Verse 25, and Rev. 12: 6; 13: 1–10.

“But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion.” Verse 26. This seems clearly to refer to the providential judgment which fell upon the papacy at the end of its predicted reign, when, in 1798, Berthier, a French general, entered the city of Rome, took the pope a prisoner, and proclaimed the establishment of the Roman Republic. The history and reign of this apostate church, and the sufferings and slaughter of the saints during that long period of papal darkness and corruption, are here foretold—facts which were not pointed out in the great image of chapter 2. Thus we are brought down over the history of the world by a consecutive order of events from the days of the kingdom of Babylon to the year A. D. 1798. Though the supremacy of the papal power was broken in 1798, since which it has not been clothed with power to put the saints to death, yet according to the prophecy it was to continue, though with a power constantly diminishing till the coming of the Lord Jesus, then to be given to the burning flame, verse 11, and thus be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming. 2 Thess. 2: 8.

His dominion was to be consumed unto the end. This language strongly indicates that the pope would not lose all his power as a civil ruler till a very short time before the end.

The last remnant of that civil power was taken away, when, in September, 1870, Rome was compelled to surrender to the troops of Victor Emanuel.

After leading the mind of Daniel down through that period of anguish and sufferings of the saints, and informing him of the sudden reverses of fortune which the papacy would meet, he is then pointed forward beyond it all, just a little in the future, to the time when “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.” Verse 27.

Here will those martyred ones, together with Daniel, and the saints of all ages, find a safe and quiet resting place, a peaceful and blissful abode forever. We now inquire, Where in this line of prophecy are we standing? The answer must be, far, far

down the stream of time, more than seventy-five years beyond the overthrow of papal supremacy, and even beyond the taking away of the last vestige of the pope’s temporal power, which must bring us very near to that kingdom which the saints are to possess forever.

Yes! His great prophetic chain extends from the kingdom of Babylon to the final establishment of the kingdom of God, and the world in its history has reached the last link in this chain, and is now standing in close proximity to the kingdom of God, and has only to wait for the ushering in of that grand and momentous event, till certain predictions relative to this last remnant of time as brought to view in other prophecies shall be fulfilled, the accomplishment of which, we have the best of reasons for believing, cannot be long delayed.

W. H. BLAISDELL.