BLESSINGS IN PROPHECY

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 24, 1901

BLESSINGS IN PROPHECY.

“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.” Dan. 12:12. There is more blessing than anything else connected with prophecy. The leading prophet of the Old Testament gives the statement quoted. The leading prophet of the New Testament speaks in a similar strain: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” Rev. 1:3. To return to Dan. 12:12: When did the thousand three hundred five and thirty days begin and end? and what was the blessing of those who came to their end?—That was spoken in a prophecy wherein Daniel introduces in sublime language a number of great periods of prophetic time. Preceding verse: “And from the time the daily shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” When Daniel had asked, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? the answer was that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; that is, a thousand two hundred and threescore days, so often brought to view in other places. Here, then, we have three great prophetic periods grouped together for our consideration,—the 1260, 1290, and 1335 days.

In reference to the 1260, there can be no dispute. They began when the abomination that maketh desolate was set up; that is, when the papacy was established in A. D. 538, and ended when the abomination of the little horn was taken away in 1798 (Dan. 7:26); or, as stated in Revelation, when the eighth head of the leopard beast was wounded to death by the captivity of the pope, in 1798, which wound was “deadly,” and would have resulted in the death of that organization if it had not been “healed.” Rev. 13:10, 3. This period, so well established, furnishes a key to the whole; for concerning the 1290 we read (Dan. 12:11): “And from the time that the daily shall be taken away [now see the margin: to set up the abomination that maketh desolate, or in order to set up the abomination that maketh desolate], . . . there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety [1290] days.” Now we know what the abomination that maketh desolate was: it was the papacy, and it was set up in 538. But before this could be set up, what was called “the daily” had to be taken out of the way. What had to be taken away before the papacy could be set up?—It was an opposing system of religion; and that was paganism.

Paul makes a statement of the same facts when he describes, in 2 Thessalonians 2, the setting up of the papacy. He says: “And now ye know what withholdeth [or restraineth the development of the papal power] that he [the papacy] might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity [the spirit of the papacy] doth already work [was working right then, in Paul’s day]: only he [the daily, paganism] who now letteth [hindereth] will let [or hinder or withhold], until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked [the papacy] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” 2 Thess. 2:6-8.

From these testimonies the early Adventist expositors were led to conclude that in Dan. 8:9-13, where the same ground is covered, the same powers, paganism and papacy, both hostile to the Church, and hostile to each other till one of them (paganism) was taken away, are brought to view. That is why they said that “the daily” meant paganism, and the “transgression of desolation” meant the papacy, two antichristian systems which were the tormentors of the Church. The early Christians understood this, and we are told that they, gathering from the prophecies that when paganism passed away, it would give place to a power which would be more relentless and oppressive upon God’s people, prayed, in view of the peace of the Church, that paganism might continue as long as possible.

And was this so that paganism was taken away, or ceased to be the controlling power in the Roman Empire, as the prophecy had pointed out?—Verily so. The old students of prophecy under the first message—notably the venerable minister Apollos Hale, who, under the inspiration of the new truth concerning the Lord’s soon coming, graduated from the desk of a successful shoe merchant, to the field of evangelical labor—explored the records of history from the point of view of the prophecies, and were rewarded with abundant success. As we approach the opening of the sixth century, the great convulsion which was shaking the Roman Empire to pieces was well in progress. After the ten horns arose, the little horn of Dan. 7:8, the papacy, came up and was established in 538. We are looking now at the time which the prophecy points out, when the movements preliminary to, and preparatory to, this revolution should take place; when that which hindered should be taken out of the way in order that the abomination of desolation, the papacy, might be set up. By the flood of barbarians which swept down upon Rome from the north, the empire was broken into fragments, but the lords and rulers of these fragments, one by one, professed the Christian faith. Between the time of the conversion of Clovis and 508, “by alliances, capitulations, and conquests, the Arborici, the Roman garrisons in the West, Brittany, the Burgundians, and the Visigoths were brought into subjection.” The same year the mine was sprung beneath the throne of the Eastern Empire. Its rightful ruler, the emperor Anastasius, was humbled to implore the mercy of his subjects. In the troubles of those times sixty-five thousand Christians fell victims to the troops of Vitalian, says Gibbon, who declared himself the champion of the Catholic faith. From that time, 508 A. D., paganism, so far as Catholicism was concerned, was removed out of the way. Only thirty years more were required for the full development of the papacy, when the three Arian horns—the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths—were plucked up before it, 538 A. D. Dan. 7:8. These horns had renounced paganism, but on theological grounds were antagonistic to the claims of the papacy.

508 A. D. is then the date from which the 1290 years are to be reckoned. They ended in 1798. Thus the two periods—1290 and 1260 years—ended together in 1798, when the dominion of the papacy was taken away, and the “time of the end” began. But when did the 1335 days begin?—Where the 1290 began; for they are so closely associated with these days that the point of beginning cannot be separated. No possible ground can be imagined for beginning them elsewhere. Dating from 508, they extend to 1843. And what was there to mark this point?—The rising light of the first message, announcing the blessed doctrine of the soon coming of the Son of man. The eyes that saw the truth described by the words, “he that cometh” to it, were blessed as were those of the disciples when they saw the truths connected with the first advent. Matt. 13:16. We were then forty-five years down in the time of the end, when knowledge should be increased, and many run to and fro. Signs were multiplying, the message was sounding. God was fulfilling His part, and bringing to pass His word. We were in the time when He bids His people look up and lift up their heads; “for,” He says, “your redemption draweth nigh.” Fifty-four years we have already been in that time, the evidences of the fast approaching end all the while growing stronger, and signs multiplying on every hand. Is it not, then, more than ever, time that we look up, and lift up our heads, knowing that our redemption has drawn very nigh? Redemption is the theme over which to rejoice and be exceeding glad.