A STRIKING FULFILMENT by H. C. Giles

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Jun 13, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 24.

A STRIKING FULFILMENT.

By H. C. Giles

[This is article thirteen of the series.]

LET us again briefly enumerate the specifications of the prophecy, so that each successive step in its application may be well taken:—

1. We must look for an ecclesiastical monarchy,—another king, “diverse” from the ten. Dan. 7:24. Where shall we find an ecclesiastical monarchy if not in the papal see of Rome? In fact, the assumption of temporal power by the popes, and the use of that power to enforce the dogmas of the Catholic Church, is what has made that church the very “man of sin,” “the mystery of iniquity.” Christ ordained His church to walk alone with Him instead of to seek alliance with earthly monarchs. He bade her lean upon the everlasting arm of heaven’s King rather than seek her strength from the puny arm of earthly potentates.

2. We must look for a power to arise among the ten. The papal see has its capital in the very heart of the divisions of the Roman Empire.

3. It came up after the ten. The “ten kingdoms” arose A.D. 351–476. The Papacy was not established till “after” this, as will next appear.

4. “Three kings” were to be subdued by it in its rise. The ten kingdoms which arose out of the dismemberment of the Western empire of Rome were the Alemanni, Franks, Burgundians, Suevi, Vandals, Visigoths, Saxons, Ostrogoths, Lombards, and Heruli. Three of these, the Heruli, Lombards, and Ostrogoths, were Arian (non-Catholic) in belief, and consequently stoutly opposed the temporal sovereignty of the popes. Hence, before the Papacy could attain to its final supremacy, these opposing powers must be overthrown. To effect this the pope sent against them the armies of those sovereigns who recognized his supremacy, and one after another the kingdoms were overthrown, the last, the Ostrogoths, being subdued A.D. 538, at which date, therefore, the supremacy of the Papacy must begin. That this is no invention of the imagination, but a clearly recognized fact, the triple crown surmounting the pope’s tiara bears unquestionable evidence.

5. We look for an apparently “little” power, yet speaking “great” words, whose “power shall be mighty, but not by his own power.” During the period of papal supremacy a word from the Vatican was sufficient to fill whole nations with religious frenzy, and equip an army before whose advance the mightiest monarchs paled and trembled for the security of their thrones. The Crusades bear indisputable testimony of the truth of this.

6. Through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand. In this horn were eyes [symbol of sagacity and foresight] like the eyes of a man. Here surely is no chance for misapplication.

What has given Rome her power for 1,200 years is that superhuman sagacity, that perpetual policy, of which the eye is emblematical, that vigilance which she exercises over every part of the earth by her religious orders, her Jesuits, her apostolic prelates, and especially her confessionals.—L. Gaussen, Lecture before School of Theology at Geneva, Oct. 3, 1843.

7. A “look more stout than his fellows.” He “magnifieth himself.” Dan. 8:11, 25. He “exalteth himself.” 2 Thess. 2:8. The following, from an eye-witness, is to the point:—

Go yet this year to view him in the Vatican, as I myself have done. You will see hanging in the “royal hall,” where all the ambassadors of Europe pass, a picture representing the great emperor Henry IV. uncovered before Gregory VII. You will see in another picture the heroic and mighty emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, upon his knees and elbows before Pope Alexander III., in the public square of Venice, the foot of the pope resting on his shoulder, his scepter cast to the ground, and under the picture these words, “Fredericus supplex adorat, fidem et obedientiam pollicitus” (Frederick, as a suppliant, adores, promising faith and obedience).—L. Gaussen.

8. The little horn “made war with the saints.” It “shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.” In answer to this charge, let the blood of myriads of the martyrs of Jesus bear silent but positive testimony. Let the memory of the Christian Waldenses and Albigenses, together with their fellow-sufferers, whose only offense was that they insisted upon the right to worship God according to the plain requirements of His Word, witness against that cruel and anti-Christian power which “deluged Europe and Asia with blood” (Gibbon) in its efforts to banish God’s truth and worship from the earth, and in their place substitute the corruptions of an apostate church.

9. It should exercise supreme power. He “prevailed against” the saints. They were “given into his hand.” The host was “trodden underfoot.”

“Whom she could not corrupt, them she exterminated.” Ever since that Christmas day, A.D. 800 (when Charlemagne was crowned emperor by the pope Leo III.), Leo and all his successors have spent their lives and exercised their boundless ambition, in making felt to the uttermost, this blasphemous claim; and for ages, nations groaned and peoples perished, under the frightful exercise of this infernal power.—L. Gaussen.

10. This power was to continue 1,260 years. The duration of this persecuting power is variously stated as “a time, times, and a half” (Dan. 12:7; 7:25; Rev. 12:14), “forty and two” (42) months (Rev. 13:5), and “a thousand two hundred and threescore (1,260) days” (Rev. 12:6). A time is synonymous with a year. Dan. 4:16; 11:13, margin. Hence, 1 time + 2 times (the plural) + ½ time = 3½ times, or 3½ years. The year having 12 months, 3½ years would equal 3½ × 12, or 42 months. Rev. 13:5. The month of the Bible being composed of 30 days, 42 months would equal 42 × 30, or 1,260 days. Rev. 12:6. A day in prophecy is symbolic of a year. Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6. Therefore the “time, times, and a half,” equaling 42 months, or 1,260 days, represents in the prophecy 1,260 years, the duration of the power in question.

The pertinent question to consider at this point is, Did the Papacy continue just that length of time? Let history answer.

We have already seen (paragraph 4 above) that papal supremacy was established in 538 A.D. by the subjugation of the heretical (?) Ostrogoths, the last of the three Arian powers who refused submission to the papal hierarchy. With this date, then, the 1,260 years allotted by the prophecy to this power begin. Beginning thus, the termination would be A.D. 1798. Did anything of significance to the Papacy occur at this time? In February of that year, Berthier, commanding the French army, entered Rome, took possession of the city, and made the pope and the cardinals prisoners. Within a week Pius VI. was deposed. “Ten days after, the pope was sent away under an escort of French cavalry, and was finally carried into France, where he died in captivity.” —Croly on the Apocalypse, pp. 100, 289. In Haydn’s “Dictionary of Dates,” p. 375, occurs the following: “Pius VI., Angelo Braschi, February 15: dethroned by Bonaparte: he was expelled from Rome, and deposed in February, 1798, and died at Valence, Aug. 29, 1799.” Thus ended the temporal sovereignty of the popes.

Thus we see that every specification of the prophecy meets its fulfilment in the Papacy, and in nothing else. We are therefore shut up to the conclusion that by the “little horn” power and the “transgression of desolation” of Daniel, and by “the beast” of John, and “the man of sin” of Paul, is pointed out that system of popery which cursed the world for more than twelve long centuries, flooding humanity with ignorance and superstition, and shutting the avenues of light and knowledge to the world. During this time the car of human progress rolled backward, and for over a thousand years the race was shrouded in the blackness of night, a blackness such as could emanate only from him who is the ruler of the darkness of this world.

It is only necessary to revert to the line of prophecy last noticed (Revelation 13), and observe one additional point, to see that this is but a plain statement of the truth.

H. C. GILES.

[The next article in the series is “A Striking Fulfilment.”]