p. 72 | A TIME PROPHECY by C. P. B.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 4, 1889

A TIME PROPHECY.

By C. P. B.

In an article in last week's paper, entitled "The Little Horn of Daniel 7," that horn was identified as the Papacy; but the words, "They shall be given into his hands, until a time and times and the dividing of time," were left unexplained. Let us see if we can find an explanation of this apparently mysterious passage.

The word time, used in the text under consideration, might mean a month, a week, or a day, but in this connection it is generally understood to mean a year. In Dan. 4:16 we read of king Nebuchadnezzar: "Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him." This period Josephus tells us (Book 10, chapter 10, Section 6,) was seven years, and in a foot note the translator, William Whiston, M. A., says:—

"Since Josephus here explains the seven prophetic times which were to pass over Nebuchadnezzar to be seven years, we thence learn how he most probably must have understood those other parallel phrases [Dan. 7:25; 12:7], of 'a time, times, and a half,' as so many prophetic years also; though he withal lets us know, by his hint at the interpretation of the seventy weeks, as belonging to the fourth monarchy, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the days of Josephus, that he did not think those years to be mere years, but rather days for years; by which reckoning, and by which alone, could seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety days, reach to the age of Josephus."

That the word time is used in Daniel 7:25 to mean year, and that the expression "time times and the dividing of time," means three years and a half, "each day for a year" (Eze. 4:4-6), is so generally accepted that little need be said on the subject; those, however, who have never given the subject any thought, should compare Dan. 7:25 with parallel passages in Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:14, and 13:5. In these texts we have the expressions, "Forty and two months," "a thousand two hundred and three score [1260] days," "a time, and times, and half a time." That these all clearly refer to the same power, namely the Papacy, and to the same period of time, is generally understood by Protestants. Dr. Barnes says: "This duration is mentioned as a time, and times, and the dividing of a time;—three years and a half—twelve hundred and sixty days—twelve hundred and sixty years." The time is of course the same in the several texts referred to.

We are then to understand from the prophecy that the power represented by the little horn was to have dominion over the people of God for twelve hundred and sixty years; but from what date, the prophecy does not inform us; this must be determined in the same manner that the fulfillment of any other specification of prophecy is determined, namely, by comparing the facts of history with the prophecy.

Several different dates are assigned by various writers for the establishment of the Papacy, but A. D. 538 is the only one that meets the conditions of the prophecy. Referring again to the text under consideration, we notice that the order is, first, the rise of the ten horns; second, another arises after them; third, the little horn subdues three kings; fourth, this little horn then makes war against the people of God, and they are given into his hands for twelve hundred and sixty years. It follows, therefore, that the twelve hundred and sixty years of Papal supremacy must date from the overthrow of the

last of the three powers that fell before the little horn. We have already learned in a former article, that these three kingdoms were the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths, and that the last of these powers was overthrown in A. D. 538.

Now if 1260 years this side of A. D. 538 we find an event to mark the close of Papal supremacy, we shall be doubly sure that we have made the correct application of the prophecy. The following, from "Chambers' Cyclopedia," article "Pius," presents just such a fact. We quote as follows:—

"At length the [French] Directory ordered the invasion of Rome; Berthier entered the city February 10, 1798, and took possession of the castle of St Angelo. Pius [VI.] was called on to renounce his temporal sovereignty, and on his refusal, was seized, February 20, and carried away to Siena, and afterwards to the celebrated Certosa, or Carthusian monastery, of Florence. On the threatened advance of the Austro-Russian army in the following year, he was transferred to Grenoble, and finally to Valence, on the Rhone, where, worn out by age and the rigor of confinement, he died in August, 1799, in the eighty-second year of his age and the twenty-fourth of his pontificate."

Thus we see that from 538 to 1798, A. D., there were 1260 years of unbroken power, plainly fulfilling the prophecy, and marking the Papacy, beyond the peradventure of a doubt, as the power symbolized by the little horn of Dan. 7:25. C. P. B.